New Caledonia’s Tontouta International Airport remains closed, and Air New Zealand’s next scheduled flight is on Saturday — although it is not ruling out adding extra services.
Air NZ’s Captain David Morgan said on Monday evening flights would only resume when they were assured of the security of the airport and safe access for passengers and staff.
Later, the airline said its “next scheduled service is Saturday, May 25. However, we will continue to review this and may add capacity when the airport reopens”.
AirCalin said tonight Tontouta airport would be closed until May 23.
The capital descended into chaos last Monday, after riots protesting against a controversial new bill that would allow French residents who have lived there for more than 10 years to vote — which critics say will weaken the indigenous Kanak vote.
At least six people have been killed, and more than 230 people have been arrested.
A NZ Defence Force Hercules is on standby to bring 250 Kiwis home, but it is awaiting clearance from French authorities.
Clearing roadblocks
Hundreds of armed French police have been using armoured vehicles to clear protesters and roadblocks between the international airport and Nouméa.
The risky route — which stretches for about 50 km north of the capital — is the key reason why the airport remains closed.
Emma Roylands, a Kiwi studying at the University of New Caledonia, said the nights on campus had been stressful.
“We’ve set up a sense of a roster, or a shift, that watches over the night time for the university, and this high-strung suspicion from every noise, every bang, that is that someone coming to the university,” she said.
Roylands said she was not sure if the French police would be able to successfully clear the main road to the airport.
“Clearing the road for an hour north seems like an impossible task with these rioters,” she said.
Shula Guse from Canterbury, who was on holiday with her partner and friends, said many shops were running low on stock.
‘Nothing on the shelves’
“The shops are closed or if they’re open they have empty shelves, the local corner dairy has nothing on the shelves,” she said.
Guse said she managed to buy some flour and yeast from a local pizza shop and had started making her own bread.
She said her group had flights rebooked for tomorrow — but there had been no confirmation from Air New Zealand on whether it would go ahead.
Guse, whose friends were running low on heart medication, said they would have to make other plans if it fell through.
“When today is finished, and we haven’t heard any news, then we might start tomorrow looking for more medication, more food, just to make sure we have enough.”
The Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) said the NZDF Hercules was ready, as soon as French authorities gave permission.
When asked whether the Navy would be deployed, MFAT said its focus was on flight repatriation.
RNZ asked whether New Zealand would consider helping evacuate people from other Pacific countries who were stranded in New Caledonia. MFAT said it had been engaging with Pacific partners about the crisis.
Foreign Minister Winston Peters said he was unable to put a timeframe on how soon New Zealanders could return.
He said they were continuing to explore possible options, including working alongside Australia and other partners to help get New Zealanders home.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.
A New Zealander studying at the University of New Caledonia says students have been taught to use fire extinguishers as firefighters are unlikely to come help if there is an emergency.
It comes as days of unrest followed a controversial proposed constitutional amendment which would allow more French residents of New Caledonia to vote — a move that pro-independence protesters say would weaken the indigenous Kanak vote.
Six people have been confirmed dead so far in the state of emergency and there are reports of hundreds of people injured, numerous fires and looting in New Caledonia’s capital Nouméa.
Emma Royland is one of several international students at the university in Nouméa and said everyone was getting a bit “high-strung”.
“There’s this high-strung suspicion from every noise, every bang that ‘is that somebody coming to the university?’”
Royland said a roster had been set up so that someone was constantly up overnight, looking over the university campus.
Nights had become more quiet, but there was still unrest, she said.
Concern over technology
The vice-president of the university had visited yesterday to bring students some cooking oil and expressed the concern the university had for its expensive technology, Royland said.
“They are very worried that people come and they burn things just as a middle finger to the state.
Smoke wafts over the harbour near Nouméa. Image: Emma Royland/RNZ
“We’ve been told that ‘if you see a fire, it’s unlikely that the firefighters will come so we will try and manage it ourselves’.”
Royland said water to the part of Nouméa she was in had not been affected but food was becoming an issue.
The university was providing food when it could but even it was struggling to get access to it — snacks such as oreos had been provided.
But the closest supermarket that was open had “queues down the block” that could last three or four hours, Royland said.
Seeing ‘absolutely crazy things’
She was seeing “absolutely crazy things that I’ve never seen in my life”.
Food supplies are delivered to the University of Caledonia campus. Image: Emma Royland/RNZ
That included people holding guns.
“It is quite scary to know just 20 seconds down from the university there are guys with guns blocking the road.”
“Ever since the security situation in New Caledonia deteriorated earlier this week, the safety of New Zealanders there has been an urgent priority for us,” Peters wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
“NZ authorities have now completed preparations for flights using NZDF aircraft to bring home New Zealanders in New Caledonia while commercial services are not operating.
‘Ready to fly’
“We are ready to fly, and await approval from French authorities as to when our flights are safe to proceed.”
Businesses and facilities have been torched by rioters. Image: Emma Royland/RNZ
Royland praised the response from New Zealand, saying other countries had not been so quick to help its citizens.
She said she had received both a call and email from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade asking her if she was in immediate danger and if she needed assistance straight away.
Everyone she had spoken to at the university seemed impressed with how New Zealand was responding, she said.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
With New Caledonia about to enter its second week of deadly riots, French authorities have mounted a massive law enforcement operation to regain control of the main roads in and around the capital Nouméa.
French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal — after a 12-day presidential state of emergency was declared mid-week — is now chairing daily meetings of an “inter-ministerial crisis cell”, also involving Home Affairs and Overseas Minister Gérald Darmanin, his deputy Marie Guévenoux, Army Minister Sébastien Lecornu and Justice Minister Eric Dupont-Moretti.
Attal also hosted a parliamentary “liaison committee” on the crisis in New Caledonia meeting on Friday. The meeting involved parliamentary representatives of New Caledonia and parliamentary groups specialising in the French Pacific archipelago.
French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal hosts a parliamentary liaison committee on the crisis in New Caledonia. Image: RNZ/Le Monde
A ‘dialogue mission’ for New Caledonia
It emerged after the conference that a “dialogue mission” was now very likely to be set up and to travel to New Caledonia in order to restore dialogue and trust between Paris and its South Pacific dependency.
The notion of the mission, which would have to be “impartial” and “bipartisan”, had been called by several key players within the French political scene.
This high-level dialogue mission could involve Senate President Gérard Larcher or National Assembly President Yaël Braun-Pivet.
Also mentioned have been former prime ministers such as Lionel Jospin (who signed the Nouméa Accord in 1998 on behalf of France) or Edouard Philippe, who has always said he had grown a strong bond with New Caledonia when he was in office (until 2020).
The constitutional amendment was endorsed by the French Senate on April 2 and the National Assembly on May 14.
However, a joint sitting of both upper and lower houses of the French parliament, which President Emmanuel Macron intended to convene before the end of June to endorse the amendment, was “unlikely to take place within this timeframe”, Braun-Pivet and Larcher told French media on Friday.
French High Commissioner Louis Le Franc speaks at a press conference today . . . trust broken between indigenous Kanaks and the French State. Image: French Highcom/Facebook
Feeling of ‘disrespect’ Several high-level experts and officials said that the spirit of the Matignon Accords — an agreement between loyalists and pro-independence groups which was signed in 1988, a decade before the Nouméa Accord — had been lost along the way. The breach of that consensus had led to a loss of trust and growing defiance between New Caledonian pro-independence players and the French State.
They also said the Kanak people felt “disrespect” when a request to delay the third independence referendum at the end of 2021 was ignored. That ended in a boycott of the final consultation on New Caledonia’s self-determination.
They also resented the fact that at one stage, Loyalist Party leader Sonia Backès had been appointed the French government’s Secretary of State (associate minister) for citizenship.
She was forced to resign in September 2023 after losing her bid for a seat at the senatorial elections.
More recently, tensions arose when another prominent pro-France leader, Nicolas Metzdorf, was appointed rapporteur for the the debates on the proposed constitutional amendment at the National Assembly.
Since the beginning of the unrest, there have been calls for the issue to be transferred back to the Prime Minister’s Office, as had been an unwritten rule since peace was restored back in the 1980s through negotiations with then-prime minister Michel Rocard.
Experts said this “special bond” was broken in 2020, after French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe was replaced by Jean Castex and the Overseas portfolio was transferred to Sébastien Lecornu, who is now France’s minister of armed forces.
Attal was also tasked to set a date for talks to be held in Paris with New Caledonian politicians for inclusive talks on the territory’s political future, but several players have refused, saying the time was not appropriate as yet.’We have pierced all the roadblocks’
‘We have broken through all the roadblocks’
Tonight, an operation involving about 600 security personnel was launched in the outskirts of the capital to regain control of the highway between Nouméa and Tontouta International Airport, French High Commissioner Louis Le France said.
The main objective was to “restore republican order”, he said, adding that he now had sufficient numbers of law enforcement officers after reinforcements had arrived from France.
“We have broken through all the roadblocks . . . Now to restore normal traffic, we have to clean the debris,” he said.
Overnight, French special forces would “carry out harassment operations” throughout the greater Nouméa area, he said.
All schools would remain closed this week from tomorrow, New Caledonia’s government said in a release.
A roadblock at Tamoa close to Tontouta International Airport. Image: APR screenshot from “X”
“This time will be used to work on the best scenarios to prepare the resumption and integrate all of the material, security, human and psychological implications.”
Nouméa’s archbishop Michel-Marie Calvert, speaking at the Catholic Sunday mass for Pentecost, said the community had “betrayed our faith, our baptism and Jesus” through its divisions.
“Our island, once known as ‘closest to paradise’, has now become closest to hell. So many political voices are disqualified. They are no longer audible or credible.
“Let’s sound a strong signal to say ‘no’ to violence. Let’s call for a stop to violence, let’s demand from our elected leaders an obligation of results for a shared peaceful future, of lost and found fraternity.”
More buildings were destroyed by fire on Saturday night in Nouméa, including a media centre in Rivière Salée.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
Pacific civil society and solidarity groups today stepped up their pressure on the French government, accusing it of a “heavy-handed” crackdown on indigenous Kanak protest in New Caledonia, comparing it to Indonesian security forces crushing West Papuan dissent.
A state of emergency was declared last week, at least people have been killed — four of them indigenous Kanaks — and more than 200 people have been arrested after rioting in the capital Nouméa followed independence protests over controversial electoral changes
In Sydney, the Australia West Papua Association declared it was standing in solidarity with the Kanak people in their self-determination struggle against colonialism.
“Like all colonial powers anywhere in the world, the first response to what started as peaceful protests is to send in more troops, declare a state of emergency and of course accuse a foreign power of fermenting unrest,” Collins said.
He was referring to the south Caucasus republic of Azerbaijan, which Paris has accused of distributing “anti-France propaganda” on social media about the riots, a claim denied by the Azeri government.
“In fact, the unrest is being caused by France itself,” Collins added.
France ‘should listen’
He said France should listen to the Kanak people.
In Port Vila, the international office of the United Liberation Movement of West Papua (ULMWP) issued a statement saying that West Papuans supported the Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS) in “opposing the French colonial project”.
“Your tireless pursuit of self-determination for Kanaky people sets a profound example for West Papua,” said the statement signed by executive secretary Markus Haluk.
Part of the PRNGO statement on the Kanaky New Caledonia protests . . . call for UN and Pacific intervention. Image: APR screenshot
In Suva, the Pacific Regional Non-Governmental Organisations (PRNGOs) called for “calm and peace” blaming the unrest on the French government’s insistence on proceeding with proposed constitutional changes “expressly rejected by pro-independence groups”.
The alliance also reaffirmed its solidarity with the people of Kanaky New Caledonia in their ongoing peaceful quest for self-determination and condemned President Emmanuel Macron’ government for its “poorly hidden agenda of prolonging colonial control” over the Pacific territory.
“Growing frustration, especially among Kanak youth, at what is seen locally as yet another French betrayal of the Kanaky people and other local communities seeking peaceful transition, has since erupted in riots and violence in Noumea and other regions,” the PRNGOs statement said.
The alliance called on the United Nations and Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) leaders to send a neutral mission to oversee and mediate dialogue over the Nouméa Accords of 1998 and political process.
In Aotearoa New Zealand, Kia Mua declared it was “watching with grave concern” the Macron government’s attempts to “derail the process for decolonisation and usurp the Nouméa Accords”.
It also called for the “de-escalation of the militarised French response to Kanak dissent and an end to the state of emergency”.
‘Devastating nuclearism, militarism’
For more than 300 years, “Te Moananui a Kiwa [Pacific Ocean] has been subjected to European colonialism, the criminality of which is obscured and hidden by Western presumptions of righteousness and legitimacy.”
The devastating effects of “nuclearism, militarism, extraction and economic globalisation on Indigenous culture and fragile ecosystems in the Pacific are an extension of that colonialism and must be halted”.
The Oceanian Independence Movement (OIM) demanded an immediate investigation “to provide full transparency into the deaths linked to the uprising in recent days”.
It called on indigenous people to be “extra vigilant” in the face of the state of emergency and and to record examples of “behaviour that harm your physical and moral integrity”.
The MOI said it supported the pro-independence CCAT (activist field groups) and blamed the upheaval on the “racist, colonialist, provocative and humiliating remarks” towards Kanaks by rightwing French politicians such as Southern provincial president Sonia Backés and Générations NC deputy in the National Assembly Nicolas Metzdorf.
Constitutional rules
The French National Assembly last week passed a bill changing the constutional rules for local provincial elections in New Caledonia, allowing French residents who have lived there for 10 years to vote.
This change to the electoral reform is against the terms of the 1998 Noumea Accord. That pact had agreed that only the indigenous Kanak people and long-term residents prior to 1998 would be eligible to vote in provincial ballots and local referendums.
The bill has yet to be ratified by Congress, a combined sitting of the Senate and National Assembly. The change would add an additional 25,000 non-indigenous voters to take part in local elections, dramatically changing the electoral demographics in New Caledonia to the disadvantage of indigenous Kanaks who make up 42 percent of the 270,000 population.
Yesterday, in the far north of Kanaky New Caledonia’s main island of Grande Terre, a group gathered to honour 10 Kanaks who were executed by guillotine on 18 May 1868. They had resisted the harsh colonial regime of Governor Guillan.
Today is the 24th anniversary of renegade and failed businessman George Speight’s coup in 2000 Fiji. The elected coalition government headed by Mahendra Chaudhry, the first and only Indo-Fijian prime minister of Fiji, was held hostage at gunpoint for 56 days in the country’s new Parliament by Speight’s rebel gunmen in a putsch that shook the Pacific and the world.
Emerging recently from almost 24 years in prison, former investigative journalist and publisher Josefa Nata — Speight’s “media minder” — is now convinced that the takeover of Fiji’s Parliament on 19 May 2000 was not justified.
He believes that all it did was let the “genie of racism” out of the bottle.
He spoke to Islands Business Fiji correspondent, Joe Yaya on his journey back from the dark.
The Fiji government kept you in jail for 24 years [for your media role in the coup]. That’s a very long time. Are you bitter?
I heard someone saying in Parliament that “life is life”, but they have been releasing other lifers. Ten years was conventionally considered the term of a life sentence. That was the State’s position in our sentencing. The military government extended it to 12 years. I believe it was out of malice, spitefulness and cruelty — no other reason. But to dwell in the past is counterproductive.
If there’s anyone who should be bitter, it should be me. I was released [from prison] in 2013 but was taken back in after two months, ostensibly to normalise my release papers. That government did not release me. I stayed in prison for another 10 years.
To be bitter is to allow those who hurt you to live rent free in your mind. They have moved on, probably still rejoicing in that we have suffered that long. I have forgiven them, so move on I must.
Time is not on my side. I have set myself a timeline and a to-do list for the next five years.
Jo Nata’s journey from the dark, Islands Business, April 2024. Image: IB/Joe Yaya/USP Journalism
What are some of those things?
Since I came out, I have been busy laying the groundwork for a community rehabilitation project for ex-offenders, released prisoners, street kids and at-risk people in the law-and-order space. We are in the process of securing a piece of land, around 40 ha to set up a rehabilitation farm. A half-way house of a sort.
You can’t have it in the city. It would be like having the cat to watch over the fish. There is too much temptation. These are vulnerable people who will just relapse. They’re put in an environment where they are shielded from the lures of the world and be guided to be productive and contributing members of society.
It will be for a period of up to six months; in exceptional cases, 12 months where they will learn living off the land. With largely little education, the best opportunity for these people, and only real hope, is in the land.
Most of these at-risk people are [indigenous] Fijians. Although all native land are held by the mataqali, each family has a patch which is the “kanakana”. We will equip them and settle them in their villages. We will liaise with the family and the village.
Apart from farming, these young men and women will be taught basic life skills, social skills, savings, budgeting. When we settle them in the villages and communities, we will also use the opportunity to create the awareness that crime does not pay, that there is a better life than crime and prison, and that prison is a waste of a potentially productive life.
Are you comfortable with talking about how exactly you got involved with Speight?
The bulk of it will come out in the book that I’m working on, but it was not planned. It was something that happened on the day.
You said that when they saw you, they roped you in?
Yes. But there were communications with me the night prior. I basically said, “piss off”.
So then, what made you go to Parliament eventually? Curiosity?
No. I got a call from Parliament. You see, we were part of the government coalition at that time. We were part of the Fijian Association Party (led by the late Adi Kuini Speed). The Fiji Labour Party was our main coalition partner, and then there was the Christian Alliance. And you may recall or maybe not, there was a split in the Fijian Association [Party] and there were two factions. I was in the faction that thought that we should not go into coalition.
There was an ideological reason for the split [because the party had campaigned on behalf of iTaukei voters] but then again, there were some members who came with us only because they were not given seats in Cabinet.
Because your voters had given you a certain mandate?
A masked gunman waves to journalists to duck during crossfire. Image: IPI Global Journalist/Joe Yaya/USP Journalism
Well, we were campaigning on the [indigenous] Fijian manifesto and to go into the [coalition] complicated things. Mine was more a principled position because we were a [indigenous] Fijian party and all those people went in on [indigenous] Fijian votes. And then, here we are, going into [a coalition with the Fiji Labour Party] and people probably
accused us of being opportunists.
But the Christian Alliance was a coalition partner with Labour before they went into the election in the same way that the People’s Alliance and National Federation Party were coalition partners before they got into [government], whereas with us, it was more like SODELPA (Social Democratic Liberal Party).
So, did you feel that the rights of indigenous Fijians were under threat from the Coalition government of then Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry?
Perhaps if Chaudhry was allowed to carry on, it could have been good for [indigenous] Fijians. I remember the late President and Tui Nayau [Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara] . . . in a few conversations I had with him, he said it [Labour Party] should be allowed to . . . [carry on].
Did you think at that time that the news media gave Chaudhry enough space for him to address the fears of the iTaukei people about what he was trying to do, especially for example, through the Land Use Commission?
I think the Fijians saw what he was doing and that probably exacerbated or heightened the concerns of [indigenous] Fijians and if you remember, he gave Indian cane farmers certain financial privileges.
The F$10,000 grants to move from Labasa, when the ALTA (Agricultural Landlord and Tenants Act) leases expired. Are you talking about that?
I can’t remember the exact details of the financial assistance but when they [Labour Party] were questioned, they said, “No, there were some Fijian farmers too”. There were also iTaukei farmers but if you read in between the lines, there were like 50 Indian farmers and one Fijian farmer.
Was there enough media coverage for the rural population to understand that it was not a one-sided ethnic policy?
Because there were also iTaukei farmers involved. Yes, and I think when you try and pull the wool over other people, that’s when they feel that they have been hoodwinked. But going back to your question of whether Chaudhry was given fair media coverage, I was no longer in the mainstream media at that time. I had moved on.
But the politicians have their views and they’ll feel that they have been done badly by the media. But that’s democracy. That’s the way things worked out.
“The Press and the Putsch”, Asia Pacific Media Educator, No 10, January 2021. Image: APME/Joe Yaya/USP Journalism
Pacific journalism educator, David Robie, in a paper in 2001, made some observations about the way the local media reported the Speight takeover. He said, “In the early weeks of the insurrection, the media enjoyed an unusually close relationship with Speight and the hostage takers.”
He went on to say that at times, there was “strong sympathy among some journalists for the cause, even among senior editorial executives”.
David Robie is an incisive and perceptive old-school journalist who has a proper understanding of issues and I do not take issue with his opinion. And I think there is some validity. But you see, I was on the other [Speight’s] side. And it was part of my job at that time to swing that perception from the media.
Did you identify with “the cause” and did you think it was legitimate?
Let me tell you in hindsight, that the coup was not justified
and that is after a lot of reflection. It was not justified and
could never be justified.
When did you come to that conclusion?
It was after the period in Parliament and after things were resolved and then Parliament was vacated, I took a drive around town and I saw the devastation in Suva. This was a couple of months later. I didn’t realise the extent of the damage and I remember telling myself, “Oh my god, what have we done? What have we done?”
And I realised that we probably have let the genie out of the bottle and it scared me [that] it only takes a small thing like this to unleash this pentup emotion that is in the people. Of course, a lot of looting was [by] opportunists because at that time, the people who
were supporting the cause were all in Parliament. They had all marched to Parliament.
So, who did the looting in town? I’m not excusing that. I’m just trying to put some perspective. And of course, we saw pictures, which was really, very sad . . . of mothers, women, carrying trolleys [of loot] up the hill, past the [Colonial War Memorial] hospital.
So, what was Speight’s primary motivation?
Well, George will, I’m sure, have the opportunity at some point to tell the world what his position was. But he was never the main player. He was ditched with the baby on his laps.
So, there were people So, there were people behind him. He was the man of the moment. He was the one facing the cameras.
Given your education, training, experience in journalism, what kind of lens were you viewing this whole thing from?
Well, let’s put it this way. I got a call from Parliament. I said, “No, I’m not coming down.” And then they called again.
Basically, they did not know where they were going. I think what was supposed to have happened didn’t happen. So, I got another call, I got about three or four calls, maybe five. And then eventually, after two o’clock I went down to Parliament, because the person who called was a friend of mine and somebody who had shared our fortunes and misfortunes.
So, did you get swept away? What was going on inside your head?
George Speight’s forces hold Fiji government members hostage at the parliamentary complex in Suva. Image: IPI Global Journalist/Brian Cassey/Associated Press
I joined because at that point, I realised that these people needed help. I was not so much as for the cause, although there was this thing about what Chaudhry was doing. I also took that into account. But primarily because the call came [and] so I went.
And when I was finally called into the meeting, I walked in and I saw faces that I’d never seen before. And I started asking the questions, “Have you done this? Have you done that?”
And as I asked the questions, I was also suggesting solutions and then I just got dragged into it. The more I asked questions, the more I found out how much things were in disarray.
I just thought I’d do my bit [because] they were people who had taken over Parliament and they did not know where to go from there.
But you were driven by some nationalistic sentiments?
I am a [indigenous] Fijian. And everything that goes with that. I’m not infallible. But then again, I do not want to blow that trumpet.
Did the group see themselves as freedom fighters of some sort when you went into prison?
I’m not a freedom fighter. If they want to be called freedom fighters, that’s for them and I think some of them even portrayed themselves [that way]. But not me. I’m just an idiot who got sidetracked.
This personal journey that you’ve embarked on, what brought that about?
When I was in prison, I thought about this a lot. Because for me to come out of the bad place I was in — not physically, that I was in prison, but where my mind was — was to first accept the situation I was in and take responsibility. That’s when the healing started to take place.
And then I thought that I should write to people that I’ve hurt. I wrote about 200 letters from prison to anybody I thought I had hurt or harmed or betrayed. Groups, individuals, institutions, and families. I was surprised at the magnanimity of the people who received my letters.
I do not know where they all are now. I just sent it out. I was touched by a lot of the responses and I got a letter from the late [historian] Dr Brij Lal. l was so encouraged and I was so emotional when I read the letter. [It was] a very short letter and the kindness in the man to say that, “We will continue to talk when you come out of prison.”
There were also the mockers, the detractors, certain persons who said unkind things that, you know, “He’s been in prison and all of a sudden, he’s . . . “. That’s fine, I accepted all that as part of the package. You take the bad with the good.
I wrote to Mr Chaudhry and I had the opportunity to apologise to him personally when he came to visit in prison. And I want to continue this dialogue with Mr Chaudhry if he would like to.
Because if anything, I am among the reasons Fiji is in this current state of distrust and toxic political environment. If I can assist in bringing the nation together, it would be part of my atonement for my errors. For I have been an unprofitable, misguided individual who would like to do what I believe is my duty to put things right.
And I would work with anyone in the political spectrum, the communal leaders, the vanua and the faith organisations to bring that about.
I also did my traditional apology to my chiefly household of Vatuwaqa and the people of the vanua of Lau. I had invited the Lau Provincial Council to have its meeting at the Corrections Academy in Naboro. By that time, the arrangements had been confirmed for the Police Academy.
But the Roko gave us the farewell church service. I got my dear late sister, Pijila to organise the family. I presented the matanigasau to the then-Council Chairman, Ratu Tevita Uluilakeba (Roko Ului). It was a special moment, in front of all the delegates to the council meeting, the chiefly clan of the Vuanirewa, and Lauans who filled the two buses and
countless vehicles that made it to Naboro.
Our matanivanua (herald) was to make the tabua presentation. But I took it off him because I wanted Roko Ului and the people of Lau to hear my remorse from my mouth. It was very, very emotional. Very liberating. Cathartic.
Late last year, the Coalition government passed a motion in Parliament for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Do you support that?
Oh yes, I think everything I’ve been saying so far points that way.
Do you think it’ll help those that are still incarcerated to come out and speak about what happened in 2000?
Well, not only that but the important thing is [addressing] the general [racial] divide. If that’s where we should start, then we should start there. That’s how I’m looking at it — the bigger picture.
It’s not trying to manage the problems or issues of the last 24 years. People are still hurting from [the coups of] 1987. And what happened in 2006 — nothing has divided this country so much. Anybody who’s thought about this would want this to go beyond just solving the problem of 2000, excusing, and accusing and after that, there’s forgiveness and pardon.
That’s a small part. That too if it needs to happen. But after all that, I don’t want anybody to go to prison because of their participation or involvement in anything from 1987 to 2000. If they cooked the books later, while they were in government, then that’s a different
matter.
But I saw on TV, the weeping and the very public expression of pain of [the late, former Prime Minister, Laisenia] Qarase’s grandchildren when he was convicted and taken away [to prison]. It brought tears to my eyes. There is always a lump in my throat at the memory of my Heilala’s (elder of two daughters) last visit to [me in] Nukulau.
Hardly a word was spoken as we held each other, sobbing uncontrollably the whole time, except to say that Tiara (his sister) was not allowed by the officers at the naval base to come to say her goodbye.
That was very painful. I remember thinking that people can be cruel, especially when the girls explained that it was to be their last visit. Then the picture in my mind of Heilala sitting alone under the turret of the navy ship as she tried not to look back. I had asked her not to look back.
I deserved what I got. But not them. I would not wish the same things I went through on anyone else, not even those who were malicious towards me.
It is the family that suffers. The family are always the silent victims. It is the family that stands by you. They may not agree with what you did. Perhaps it is among the great gifts of God, that children forgive parents and love them still despite the betrayal, abandonment, and pain.
For I betrayed the two women I love most in the world. I betrayed ‘Ulukalala [son] who was born the same year I went to prison. I betrayed and brought shame to my family and my village of Waciwaci. I betrayed friends of all ethnicities and those who helped me in my chosen profession and later, in business.
I betrayed the people of Fiji. That betrayal was officially confirmed when the court judgment called me a traitor. I accepted that portrayal and have to live with it. The judges — at least one of them — even opined that I masterminded the whole thing. I have to decline that dubious honour. That belongs elsewhere.
This article by Joe Yaya is republished from last month’s Islands Business magazine cover story with the permission of editor Richard Naidu and Yaya. The photographs are from a 2000 edition of the Commonwealth Press Union’s Global Journalist magazine dedicated to the reporting of The University of the South Pacific’s student journalists. Joe Yaya was a member of the USP team at the time. The archive of the award-winning USP student coverage of the coup is here.
This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by Pacific Media Watch.
The global human rights watchdog Amnesty International has called on France to not “misuse” a crackdown in the ongoing unrest in the non-self-governing French Pacific territory of Kanaky New Caledonia in the wake of a controversial vote by the French Parliament to adopt a bill changing the territory’s voting rules.
“The state of emergency declared by the French government and the deployment of the French army, coupled with a ban on the social media app TikTok, must not be misused to restrict people’s human rights,” Amnesty Pacific researcher Kate Schuetze said.
“The deeply worrying violence and the French authorities’ response must be understood through the lens of a stalled decolonisation process, racial inequality and the longstanding, peacefully expressed demands by the Indigenous Kanak people for self-determination.”
Schuetze said it was a challenging situation for police — “sadly including several fatalities”.
She said it was imperative that French police and gendarmes only used force as “reasonably necessary and prioritise protecting the right to life”.
Banning the TikTok app seemed a “clearly disproportionate measure” that would likely constitute a violation of the right to freedom of expression.
“It may also set a dangerous precedent that could easily serve as a convenient example for France and other governments worldwide to justify shutdowns in reaction to public protests,” she said.
A contingent of about 1,000 police and army reinforcements have left the military air base of Castres (near Marseille) for New Caledonia. https://t.co/oPDI3hVRvH
“French authorities must uphold the rights of the Indigenous Kanak people and the right to peaceful expression and assembly without discrimination.
“People calling for independence should be able to express their views peacefully.”
In a 2023 resolution, following a report by the UN Special Political and Decolonization Committee, the UN General Assembly reiterated calls on “the administering power and all relevant stakeholders in New Caledonia to ensure the peaceful, fair, just and transparent conduct of the next steps of the self-determination process, in accordance with the Nouméa Accord.”
Police have used tear gas and stun grenades on rioters at an airport near Nouméa as the chaos in New Caledonia stretched into its sixth day.
Five people, including two police officers, have died and hundreds of people are injured amid clashes between authorities and pro-independence protesters.
They were sparked by anger at a proposed new law that would allow French residents who have lived in New Caledonia for more than 10 years to vote — which critics say will weaken the indigenous Kanak vote.
Last night, local media reported rioters on the field at Magenta Airport had thrown hammers and stones at police.
Officers responded with tear gas and stun grenades.
Police warned that if that was not enough to control the situation, the military was authorised to use lethal weapons.
Nouméa is under a nightly curfew, with anyone who violates it warned they could face six months in prison or a fine of up to 895,000 French Pacific francs (NZ$13,000).
A New Caledonia government crisis unit spokesperson said there was enough food in the country to last two months.
However, there was a restocking issue, with some roads impassable due to debris.
A 71-year-old woman who missed out on dialysis treatment this week due to the blockages has finally been transported to Nouméa by boat for treatment.
Meanwhile, cars have been set on fire at Dumbéa town hall. Mayor Yohann Lecourieux told the public television station NC La Première he was “worried about the future”.
Gendarme mobile officer Nicolas Molinari, 22 . . . one of two police officers who have died during rioting in New Caledonia. Image: French Gendarmerie Nationale/RNZ
Journalists attacked La Première is strengthening security surrounding its journalists after an incident where a reporting team was attacked by about 20 hooded men.
A reporter said she and a camera operator were attacked yesterday morning near the centre of Nouméa.
The men ordered them to leave, then smashed the windows of their car, the reporter told AFP news agency.
They also snatched the camera operator’s camera from his hands and threatened him with a stone.
The journalists were not injured and were rescued by a passing motorist.
La Première news content director Olivier Gélin told AFP the station’s journalists would be accompanied by security agents until further notice.
“We will now take people to protect the teams during filming, in addition to the classic protections in this type of situation — helmets and bulletproof vests,” he said.
Meanwhile, Coralie Cochin said her husband, a reporter for AFP, was photographing the burnt ruins of a shop when a man started throwing rocks at him.
An intern who had been working with Cochin at the local media outlet, La Première, was also attacked yesterday.
She was also rescued by a passing motorist, but lost her belongings in the ordeal.
END FRENCH SETTLER COLONIALISM IN KANAKY, IN MELANESIA, IN PACIFICA !
‘A complete war zone’ A resident of Portes de Fer, in the centre of Noumea, said it was terrifying to witness the chaos unfold.
Hari Simon told RNZ Pacific that businesses, houses, car companies and factories in the area had all been burnt.
It was “a very frightening scene punctuated by the sound of gunshots that broke the silence of the night,” he said.
There was “a threatening sense of danger looming in the air,” he said.
At night, people roamed the streets with guns, burning down buildings and exchanging fire with police officers.
However, since the arrival of the first batch of military police officers (gendarmes) on Wednesday, the situation had died down a little, he said.
Residents did not expect the violence to escalate so quickly and were caught off guard, he said.
“When we became fully aware of the gravity of the situation that Monday night and, more specifically in the early hours of Tuesday morning, road blocks had already been erected.”
Jean-Marie Tjibaou, a revered Kanak visionary, was inspirational to indigenous Pacific political activists across Oceania, just like Tongan anthropologist and writer Epeli Hao’ofa was to cultural advocates.
Tragically, he was assassinated in 1989 by an opponent within the independence movement during the so-called “les événements” in New Caledonia, the last time the “French” Pacific territory was engulfed in a political upheaval such as experienced this week.
His memory and legacy as poet, cultural icon and peaceful political agitator live on with the impressive Tjibaou Cultural Centre on the outskirts of the capital Nouméa as a benchmark for how far New Caledonia had progressed in the last 35 years.
However, the wave of pro-independence protests that descended into urban rioting this week invoked more than Tjibaou’s memory. Many of the martyrs — such as schoolteacher turned security minister Eloï Machoro, murdered by French snipers during the upheaval of the 1980s — have been remembered and honoured for their exploits over the last few days with countless memes being shared on social media.
Among many memorable quotes by Tjibaou, this one comes to mind:
“White people consider that the Kanaks are part of the fauna, of the local fauna, of the primitive fauna. It’s a bit like rats, ants or mosquitoes,” he once said.
“Non-recognition and absence of cultural dialogue can only lead to suicide or revolt.”
And that is exactly what has come to pass this week in spite of all the warnings in recent years and months. A revolt.
Among the warnings were one by me in December 2021 after a failed third and “final” independence referendum. I wrote at the time about the French betrayal:
“After three decades of frustratingly slow progress but with a measure of quiet optimism over the decolonisation process unfolding under the Nouméa Accord, Kanaky New Caledonia is again poised on the edge of a precipice.”
As Paris once again reacts with a heavy-handed security crackdown, it appears to have not learned from history. It will never stifle the desire for independence by colonised peoples.
New Caledonia was annexed as a colony in 1853 and was a penal colony for convicts and political prisoners — mainly from Algeria — for much of the 19th century before gaining a degree of autonomy in 1946.
“Kanaky Palestine – same combat” solidarity placard. Image: APR screenshot
Here are my five takeaways from this week’s violence and frustration:
1. Global failure of neocolonialism – Palestine, Kanaky and West Papua
Just as we have witnessed a massive outpouring of protest on global streets for justice, self-determination and freedom for the people of Palestine as they struggle for independence after 76 years of Israeli settler colonialism, and also Melanesian West Papuans fighting for 61 years against Indonesian settler colonialism, Kanak independence aspirations are back on the world stage.
Neocolonialism has failed. French President Emmanuel Macron’s attempt to reverse the progress towards decolonisation over the past three decades has backfired in his face.
2. French deafness and loss of social capital
The predictions were already long there. Failure to listen to the Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS) leadership and to be prepared to be patient and negotiate towards a consensus has meant much of the crosscultural goodwill that been developed in the wake of the Nouméa Accord of 1998 has disappeared in a puff of smoke from the protest fires of the capital.
The immediate problem lies in the way the French government has railroaded the indigenous Kanak people who make up 42 percent pf the 270,000 population into a constitutional bill that “unfreezes” the electoral roll pegging voters to those living in New Caledonia at the time of the 1998 Nouméa Accord. Under the draft bill all those living in the territory for the past 10 years could vote.
Kanak leaders and activists who have been killed . . . Jean-Marie Tjibaou is bottom left, and Eloï Machoro is bottom right. Image: FLNKS/APR
This would add some 25,000 extra French voters in local elections, which would further marginalise Kanaks at a time when they hold the territorial presidency and a majority in the Congress in spite of their demographic disadvantage.
Under the Nouméa Accord, there was provision for three referendums on independence in 2018, 2020 and 2021. The first two recorded narrow (and reducing) votes against independence, but the third was effectively boycotted by Kanaks because they had suffered so severely in the 2021 delta covid pandemic and needed a year to mourn culturally.
The FLNKS and the groups called for a further referendum but the Macron administration and a court refused.
3. Devastating economic and social loss New Caledonia was already struggling economically with the nickel mining industry in crisis – the territory is the world’s third-largest producer. And now four days of rioting and protesting have left a trail of devastation in their wake.
At least five people have died in the rioting — three Kanaks, and two French police, apparently as a result of a barracks accident. A state of emergency was declared for at least 12 days.
But as economists and officials consider the dire consequences of the unrest, it will take many years to recover. According to Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) president David Guyenne, between 80 and 90 percent of the grocery distribution network in Nouméa had been “wiped out”. The chamber estimated damage at about 200 million euros (NZ$350 million).
Twin flags of Kanaky and Palestine flying from a Parisian rooftop. Image: APR
4. A new generation of youth leadership As we have seen with Generation Z in the forefront of stunning pro-Palestinian protests across more than 50 universities in the United States (and in many other countries as well, notably France, Ireland, Germany, The Netherlands and the United Kingdom), and a youthful generation of journalists in Gaza bearing witness to Israeli atrocities, youth has played a critical role in the Kanaky insurrection.
Australian peace studies professor Dr Nicole George notes that “the highly visible wealth disparities” in the territory “fuel resentment and the profound racial inequalities that deprive Kanak youths of opportunity and contribute to their alienation”.
A feature is the “unpredictability” of the current crisis compared with the 1980s “les événements”.
“In the 1980s, violent campaigns were coordinated by Kanak leaders . . . They were organised. They were controlled.
“In contrast, today it is the youth taking the lead and using violence because they feel they have no other choice. There is no coordination. They are acting through frustration and because they feel they have ‘no other means’ to be recognised.”
According to another academic, Dr Évelyne Barthou, a senior lecturer in sociology at the University of Pau, who researched Kanak youth in a field study last year: “Many young people see opportunities slipping away from them to people from mainland France.
“This is just one example of the neocolonial logic to which New Caledonia remains prone today.”
Pan-Pacific independence solidarity . . . “Kanak People Maohi – same combat”. Image: APR screenshot
5. Policy rethink needed by Australia, New Zealand
Ironically, as the turbulence struck across New Caledonia this week, especially the white enclave of Nouméa, a whistlestop four-country New Zealand tour of Melanesia headed by Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters, who also has the foreign affairs portfolio, was underway.
The first casualty of this tour was the scheduled visit to New Caledonia and photo ops demonstrating the limited diversity of the political entourage showed how out of depth New Zealand’s Pacific diplomacy had become with the current rightwing coalition government at the helm.
Heading home, Peters thanked the people and governments of Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu and Tuvalu for “working with New Zealand towards a more secure, more prosperous and more resilient tomorrow”.
The delegation is now heading home
Many thanks to the people and governments of Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu & Tuvalu for their kind hospitality – and for working with New Zealand towards a more secure, more prosperous & more resilient tomorrow.
His tweet came as New Caledonian officials and politicians were coming to terms with at least five deaths and the sheer scale of devastation in the capital which will rock New Caledonia for years to come.
News media in both Australia and New Zealand hardly covered themselves in glory either, with the commercial media either treating the crisis through the prism of threats to tourists and a superficial brush over the issues. Only the public media did a creditable job, New Zealand’s RNZ Pacific and Australia’s ABC Pacific and SBS.
In the case of New Zealand’s largest daily newspaper, The New Zealand Herald, it barely noticed the crisis. On Wednesday, morning there was not a word in the paper.
Thursday was not much better, with an “afterthought” report provided by a partnership with RNZ. As I reported it:
“Aotearoa New Zealand’s largest newspaper, the New Zealand Herald, finally catches up with the Pacific’s biggest news story after three days of crisis — the independence insurrection in #KanakyNewCaledonia.
“But unlike global news services such as Al Jazeera, which have featured it as headline news, the Herald tucked it at the bottom of page 2. Even then it wasn’t its own story, it was relying on a partnership report from RNZ.”
Also, New Zealand media reports largely focused too heavily on the “frustrations and fears” of more than 200 tourists and residents said to be in the territory this week, and provided very slim coverage of the core issues of the upheaval.
With all the warning signs in the Pacific over recent years — a series of riots in New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste, Tonga and Vanuatu — Australia and New Zealand need to wake up to the yawning gap in social indicators between the affluent and the impoverished, and the worsening climate crisis.
These are the real issues of the Pacific, not some fantasy about AUKUS and a perceived China threat in an unconvincing arena called “Indo-Pacific”.
Dr David Robie covered “Les Événements” in New Caledonia in the 1980s and penned the book Blood on their Banner about the turmoil. He also covered the 2018 independence referendum.
Loyalist French rally in New Caledonia . . . “Unfreezing is democracy”. Image: A PR screenshot
They were sparked by anger at a proposed new law that would allow French residents who have lived there for more than 10 years to vote — which critics say will weaken the Kanak vote.
Since then, five people have died, including two police officers, and hundreds have been injured in the French Pacific territory.
Late on Friday there were reports of clashes between police and rioters around a domestic airport near Nouméa, as New Caledonia’s capital entered its fourth night under curfew.
Local media reported rioters on the airfield at Magenta airport threw hammers and stones at police, and police responded with tear gas and stun grenades.
Police warned the military was authorised to use lethal weapons if they could not contain the situation otherwise. A local told RNZ Pacific the Kanaks were not going to back down, and things could get “nasty” in the coming days if the army could not contain the crisis.
New Zealanders feeling marooned Four friends from North Canterbury landed in Nouméa on Monday as part of a “lifetime dream” trip.
Shula and Wolf Guse, and Sarah and William Hughes-Games, were celebrating Shula’s birthday and Sarah and William’s 40th wedding anniversary.
But fresh off their flight, it became clear their celebrations would not be going ahead.
“As we left the airport, there were blocks just everywhere . . . burning tyres, and people stopping us, and lots of big rocks on the road, and branches, and people shouting, waving flags,” Shula Guse said.
They wanted to get out of there, but had barely heard a peep from New Zealand government organisation SafeTravel, Sarah Hughes-Games said.
“All they’ve done is send us a . . . general letter, nothing specific,” she said.
“We’ve contacted the New Zealand Consulate here in Nouméa, and they are closed. This is the one time they should be open and helping people.”
It was not good enough, she said.
“We’ve basically been just abandoned here, so we’re just feeling a little bit fed up about the situation, that we’ve just been left alone, and nobody has contacted us.”
It was unclear when they would be able to leave.
A looted supermarket in Nouméa’s Kenu-In neighbourhood. Image: NC la 1ère TV/RNZ
Struggling to find food
Meanwhile, another person told RNZ they had family stuck in Nouméa who had registered on SafeTravel, but had heard nothing more from the government. They were struggling to find food and were feeling uneasy, they said.
“They don’t know where to go now and there seems to be no help from anywhere.”
“Even when the airport does reopen, Air New Zealand will only operate into Nouméa when we can be assured that the airport is safe and secure, and that there is a safe route for our ground staff and customers to reach the airport,” it said.
MFAT in ‘regular contact’ with impacted New Zealanders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it had activated its emergency crisis system, and consular officials in Nouméa were in regular contact with impacted New Zealanders, New Caledonia authorities, and “international partners”.
The Consulate-General was open, but staff were working remotely because it was hard to get around, it said. Those who needed immediate consular assistance should contact the 24/7 Consular Emergency line on +64 99 20 20 20.
“An in-person meeting was held for a large group of New Zealanders in Nouméa yesterday [Thursday, 16 May 16] and further meetings are taking place today,” a spokesperson said.
“Consular officials are also proactively attempting to contact registered New Zealanders in New Caledonia to check on their situations, and any specific health or welfare concerns.
“Regular SafeTravel messages are also being sent to New Zealanders — we urge New Zealanders to register on SafeTravel to receive direct messages from consular officials.”
The ministry was also speaking regularly with New Caledonian authorities about airport operations and access, and access to critical supplies like food and medicine.
“New Zealanders in New Caledonia should stay in place and avoid all protests, monitor local media for developments, and comply with any instructions and restrictions issued by local authorities.”
There are currently 219 New Zealanders registered on SafeTravel as being in New Caledonia.
Meanwhile, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters told RNZ Morning Report the government was doing all it could to get New Zealanders home.
That could include using the Air Force, he said.
The Defence Force confirmed there had been discussions with officials.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
Air New Zealand has confirmed Nouméa’s Tontouta International airport in New Caledonia is closed until Tuesday.
The airline earlier told RNZ it would update customers as soon as it could.
Earlier today, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters told RNZ Morning Report government officials had been working on an “hourly basis” to see what could be done to help New Zealanders wanting to leave.
RNZ Pacific said there were food and fuel shortages as well as problems accessing medications and healthcare services.
Biggest concerns Before the closure of the airport, Wellington researcher Barbara Graham — who has been in Nouméa for five weeks — said the main issue was “the road to the airport . . . and I understand it still impassable because of the danger there, the roadblocks and the violent groups of people”.
Airlines were looking to taking bigger planes to get more people out and were working with the airport to ensure the ground crew were also available, Graham said.
She said she was reasonably distant from the violence but had seen the devastation when moving accommodation.
Wellingtonian Emma Royland was staying at the University of New Caledonia and hoped to wait out the civil unrest, if she could procure enough food.
“Ideally the university will step in to take care of us, ideally although we must admit that the university themselves are also under a lot of hardship and they also will be having difficulties sourcing the food.”
The couple of hundred students at the university were provided with instant noodles, chips and biscuits, Royland said.
She went into town to try and find food but there were shortages and long queues, she said.
“It probably is one of my biggest concerns is actually being able to get into the city, as I stand here I can see the smoke obscuring the city from last night’s riots and it is a very big concern of being able to get that food, that would be the only reason that I would have to leave New Caledonia.”
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.
Vanuatu Prime Minister Charlot Salwai — who is also Chairman of the Melanesian Spearhead Group — has reaffirmed MSG’s support of the pro-independence umbrella group Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS) stance opposing the French government’s constitutional bill “unfreezing” the New Caledonia Electoral Roll.
It is also opposed to the proposed changes to the citizens’ electorate and the changes to the distribution of seats in Congress, reports the Vanuatu Daily Post.
In a statement yesterday, he expressed “sadness” over the “unfortunate happenings that have befallen New Caledonia over the last few days”, referring to the riots sparked by protests over the French law changes.
Vanuatu Prime Minister Charlot Salwai . . . support for the FLNKS independence movement. Image: Loop Vanuatu
Salwai expressed support for the FLNKS call for calm, and shared the FLNKS’s condemnation of the violence.
The MSG Chair said in the statement that the indiscriminate destruction of property would affect New Caledonia’s economy in a “very big way” and that would have a “debilitating cascading effect on the welfare and lives of all New Caledonians, including the Kanaks”.
Consistent with the support recorded during the MSG Senior Officials Meeting and the MSG Foreign Ministers Meeting in March this year, Salwai reaffirmed that the French government “must withdraw or annul the Constitutional Bill that has precipitated these regrettable events in New Caledonia”.
“These events could have been avoided if the French government had listened and not proceeded to press forward with the Constitutional Bill aimed at unfreezing the electoral roll, modifying the citizen’s electorate, and changing the distribution of seats in Congress,” the statement said.
“There is [a] need for the French government to return to the spirit of the Noumea Accord in its dealings relating to New Caledonia,” Salwai said.
The MSG Chair added that there was an urgent need now for France to agree to the proposal by the FLNKS to establish a dialogue and mediation mission to discuss a way forward so that normalcy could be restored quickly and an enduring peace could prevail in New Caledonia.
The statement was signed by Salwai and Vanuatu’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister Matai Seremaiah.
Vanuatu Prime Minister Charlot Salwai — who is also Chairman of the Melanesian Spearhead Group — has reaffirmed MSG’s support of the pro-independence umbrella group Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS) stance opposing the French government’s constitutional bill “unfreezing” the New Caledonia Electoral Roll.
It is also opposed to the proposed changes to the citizens’ electorate and the changes to the distribution of seats in Congress, reports the Vanuatu Daily Post.
In a statement yesterday, he expressed “sadness” over the “unfortunate happenings that have befallen New Caledonia over the last few days”, referring to the riots sparked by protests over the French law changes.
Vanuatu Prime Minister Charlot Salwai . . . support for the FLNKS independence movement. Image: Loop Vanuatu
Salwai expressed support for the FLNKS call for calm, and shared the FLNKS’s condemnation of the violence.
The MSG Chair said in the statement that the indiscriminate destruction of property would affect New Caledonia’s economy in a “very big way” and that would have a “debilitating cascading effect on the welfare and lives of all New Caledonians, including the Kanaks”.
Consistent with the support recorded during the MSG Senior Officials Meeting and the MSG Foreign Ministers Meeting in March this year, Salwai reaffirmed that the French government “must withdraw or annul the Constitutional Bill that has precipitated these regrettable events in New Caledonia”.
“These events could have been avoided if the French government had listened and not proceeded to press forward with the Constitutional Bill aimed at unfreezing the electoral roll, modifying the citizen’s electorate, and changing the distribution of seats in Congress,” the statement said.
“There is [a] need for the French government to return to the spirit of the Noumea Accord in its dealings relating to New Caledonia,” Salwai said.
The MSG Chair added that there was an urgent need now for France to agree to the proposal by the FLNKS to establish a dialogue and mediation mission to discuss a way forward so that normalcy could be restored quickly and an enduring peace could prevail in New Caledonia.
The statement was signed by Salwai and Vanuatu’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister Matai Seremaiah.
The suspected ringleaders of the unrest in New Caledonia have been placed in home detention and the social network TikTok has been banned as French security forces struggle to restore law and order.
The death toll has been revised today to five people after officials confirmed the death of a second police officer. However, RNZ Pacific understands it was an accidental killing which occurred as troops were preparing to leave barracks.
A newly introduced state of emergency has enabled suspected ringleaders to be placed in home detention, as well as a ban on Tiktok to be put in place.
French High Commissioner Louis Le Franc said Nouméa remained the “hottest spot” with some 3000-4000 rioters still in action on the streets of the capital Nouméa and another 5000 in the Greater Nouméa area.
Wea told RNZ Pacific the demonstrators “were very angry when their friends and families had been killed”.
‘Shops still closed’
“Shops are still closed. Many houses have been burnt. The international airport is closed, only military planes are allowed to land from Paris.”
Reports RNZ Pacific are receiving from the capital paint a dire picture. Shops are running out of food and hospitals are calling for blood donations.
Enforcing the state of emergency in New Caledonia. Video: [in French] Caledonia TV
“This morning [Thursday] a few shops have been opened so people can buy some food to eat,” Wea said.
RNZ Pacific former news editor Walter Zweifel, who has been covering the French Pacific territory for over three decades, said New Caledonia had not seen unrest like this since the 1980s.
The number of guns circulating in the community was a major problem as people continued to carry firearms despite a government ban, he said.
“There are so many firearms in circulation, attempts to limit the number of weapons have been made over the years unsuccessfully.
“We are talking about roughly 100,000 arms or rifles in circulation in New Caledonia with a population of less than 300,000.”
French armed forces started to arrive in Nouméa yesterday in the wake of the rioting. Image: NC la 1ère screenshot APR
More details about fatalities One of the four people earlier reported dead was a French gendarme, who was reported to have been shot in the head.
“The other three are all Melanesians,” Le Franc said.
One was a 36-year-old Kanak man, another a 20-year-old man and the third was a 17-year-old girl.
The deaths occurred during a clash with one of the newly formed “civil defence” groups, who were carrying guns, Le Franc said.
“Those who have committed these crimes are assassins. They are individuals who have used firearms.
“Maintaining law and order is a matter for professionals, police and gendarmes.”
Le Franc added: “We will look for them and we will find them anyway, so I’m calling them to surrender right now . .. so that justice can take its course.”
‘Mafia-like, violent organisation’ French Home Affairs and Overseas minister Gérald Darmanin told public TV channel France 2 he had placed 10 leaders of the CCAT (an organisation linked to the pro-independence FLNKS movement and who Darmanin believed to be the main organiser of the riots) under home detention.
“This is a Mafia-like body which I do not amalgamate with political pro-independence parties . . . [CCAT] is a group that claims itself to be pro-independence and commits looting, murders and violence,” he said.
Similar measures would be taken against other presumed leaders over the course of the day [Thursday French time].
“I have numerous elements which show this is a Mafia-like, violent organisation that loots stores and shoots real bullets at [French] gendarmes, sets businesses on fire and attacks even pro-independence institutions,” Darmanin told France 2.
Massive reinforcements were to arrive shortly and the French state would “totally regain control”, he said.
The number of police and gendarmes on the ground would rise from 1700 to 2700 by Friday night.
Darmanin also said he would request that all legitimate political party leaders across the local spectrum be placed under the protection of police or special intervention group members.
Pointing fingers Earlier on Thursday, speaking in Nouméa, Le Franc targeted the CCAT, saying there was no communication between the French State and CCAT, but that “we are currently trying to locate them”.
“This is a group of hooligans who wish to kill police, gendarmes. This has nothing to do with FLNKS political formations which are perfectly legitimate.
“But this CCAT structure is no longer relevant. Those who are at the helm of this cell are all responsible. They will have to answer to the courts,” he said.
Burnt out cars in New Caledonia during the civil unrest. Image: Twitter/@ncla1ere
However, CCAT has said it had called for calm.
Wea said the CCAT “did not tell the people to steal or break”.
The problem was that the French government “did not want to listen”, he said.
“The FLNKS has said for months not to go through with this bill.
France ‘not recognising responsibility’
“It is easy to say the CCAT are responsible, but the French government does not want to recognise their responsibility.”
Wea said he was hopeful for a peaceful resolution.
The FLNKS had always said that the next discussion with the French government would need to be around the continued management and organisation of the country for the next five years, he said.
The FLNKS also wanted to talk about the process of decolonisation.
“It is important to note that the [Pacific Islands Forum] and also the Melanesian Spearhead Group have always supported the independence of New Caledonia because independence is in the agenda of the United Nation.”
The Melanesian Spearhead Group and Vanuatu’s Prime Minister Charlot Salwai called on the French government to withdraw or annul the proposed constitutional amendments that sparked the civil unrest.
French President Emmanuel Macron said from Paris, where a meeting of a national defence council was now taking place every day, that he wished to hold a video conference with all of New Caledonia’s political leaders in order to assess the current situation.
A looted supermarket in Nouméa’s Kenu-In neighbourhood. Image: NC la 1ère TV/RNZ
But Wea said the problem was that “the French government don’t want to listen”.
“You cannot stop the Kanak people claiming freedom in their own country.”
He said concerns were mounting that Kanak people would “become a minority in their own country”.
That was why it was so important that the controversial constitutional amendments did not go any further, he said.
Economic impact In the face of massive damage caused to the local economy, Southern Province President Sonia Backès has pleaded with French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal for a “special reconstruction fund” to be set up for New Caledonia’s businesses.
“The local Chamber of Commerce estimates that initial damage to our economy amounts to some 150 million euros [NZ$267 million],” she wrote.
All commercial flights in and out of Nouméa-La Tontouta International Airport remain cancelled.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.
New Caledonia’s capital city, Nouméa, has endured widespread violent rioting over the past three days. This crisis intensified rapidly, taking local authorities by surprise.
Peaceful protests had been occurring across the country in the preceding weeks as the French National Assembly in Paris deliberated on a constitutional amendment that would increase the territory’s electoral roll.
As the date for the vote — last Tuesday — grew closer, however, protests became more obstructive and by Monday night had spiralled into uncontrolled violence.
Since then, countless public buildings, business locations and private dwellings have been subjected to arson. Blockades erected by protesters prevent movement around greater Nouméa.
Four people have died. Security reinforcements have been deployed, the city is under nightly curfew, and a state of emergency has been declared. Citizens in many areas of Nouméa are now also establishing their own neighbourhood protection militias.
To understand how this situation has spiralled so quickly, it’s important to consider the complex currents of political and socioeconomic alienation at play.
The political dispute At one level, the crisis is political, reflecting contention over a constitutional vote taken in Paris that will expand citizens’ voting rights. The change adds roughly 25,000 voters to the electoral role in New Caledonia by extending voting rights to French people who have lived on the island for 10 years.
This reform makes clear the political power that France continues to exercise over the territory.
The death toll has now increased to four.
The current changes have proven divisive because they undo provisions in the 1998 Noumea Accord, particularly the restriction of voting rights. The accord was designed to “rebalance” political inequalities so the interests of Indigenous Kanaks and the descendants of French settlers would be equally recognised.
This helped to consolidate peace between these groups after a long period of conflict in the 1980s, known locally as “les événements”.
A loyalist group of elected representatives in New Caledonia’s Parliament reject the contemporary significance of “rebalancing” (in French “rééquilibrage”) with regard to the electoral status of Kanak people. They argue after three referendums on the question of New Caledonian independence — held between 2018 and 2021 — all of which produced a majority no vote, the time for electoral reform is well overdue.
This position is made clear by Nicolas Metzdorf. A key rightwing loyalist, he defined the constitutional amendment, which was passed by the National Assembly in Paris on Tuesday, as a vote for democracy and “universalism”.
Yet this view is roundly rejected by Kanak pro-independence leaders who say these amendments undermine the political status of Indigenous Kanak people, who constitute a minority of the voting population. These leaders also refuse to accept that the decolonisation agenda has been concluded, as loyalists assert.
Instead, they dispute the outcome of the final 2021 referendum which, they argue, was forced on the territory by French authorities too soon after the outbreak of the covid pandemic. This disregarded the fact that Kanak communities bore disproportionate impacts of the pandemic and were unable to fully mobilise before the vote.
Demands that the referendum be delayed were rejected, and many Kanak people abstained as a result.
In this context, the disputed electoral reforms decided in Paris this week are seen by pro-independence camps as yet another political prescription imposed on Kanak people. A leading figure of one Indigenous Kanak women’s organisation described the vote to me as a solution that pushes “Kanak people into the gutter”, one that would have “us living on our knees”.
#NewCaledonia: At least four have been killed during riots in the French territory of New Caledonia after #France introduced new constitutional reforms. The reforms allow French residents of the island voting rights after 10 years of residence, with indigenous Kanak people… pic.twitter.com/QVG7fLFybp
Beyond the politics Many political commentators are likening the violence observed in recent days to the political violence of les événementsof the 1980s, which exacted a heavy toll on the country. Yet this is disputed by local women leaders with whom I am in conversation, who have encouraged me to look beyond the central political factors in analysing this crisis.
Some female leaders reject the view this violence is simply an echo of past political grievances. They point to the highly visible wealth disparities in the country.
These fuel resentment and the profound racial inequalities that deprive Kanak youths of opportunity and contribute to their alienation.
Women have also told me they are concerned about the unpredictability of the current situation. In the 1980s, violent campaigns were coordinated by Kanak leaders, they tell me. They were organised. They were controlled.
In contrast, today it is the youth taking the lead and using violence because they feel they have no other choice. There is no coordination. They are acting through frustration and because they feel they have “no other means” to be recognised.
There is also frustration with political leaders on all sides. Late on Wednesday, Kanak pro-independence political leaders held a press conference. They echoed their loyalist political opponents in condemning the violence and issuing calls for dialogue.
The leaders made specific calls to the “youths” engaged in the violence to respect the importance of a political process and warned against a logic of vengeance.
The women civil society leaders I have been speaking to were frustrated by the weakness of this messaging. The women say political leaders on all sides have failed to address the realities faced by Kanak youths.
They argue if dialogue remains simply focused on the political roots of the dispute, and only involves the same elites that have dominated the debate so far, little will be understood and little will be resolved.
Likewise, they lament the heaviness of the current “command and control” state security response. It contradicts the calls for dialogue and makes little room for civil society participation of any sort.
These approaches put a lid on grievances, but they do not resolve them. Women leaders observing the current situation are anguished and heartbroken for their country and its people. They say if the crisis is to be resolved sustainably, the solutions cannot be imposed and the words cannot be empty.
Instead, they call for the space to be heard and to contribute to a resolution. Until that time they live with anxiety and uncertainty, waiting for the fires to subside, and the smoke currently hanging over a wounded Nouméa to clear.
An open letter to The New Zealand Herald has challenged a full page Zionist advertisement this week for failing to acknowledge the “terrible injustices” suffered by the Palestinian people in Israel’s seven-month genocidal war on Gaza.
In the latest of several international reports that have condemned genocide against the people of Gaza while the International Court of Justice continues to investigate Israel for a plausible case for genocide, a human rights legal network of US universities has concluded that “Israel has committed genocidal acts of killing” and sought to “bring about the physical destruction of Palestinians in Gaza”.
The University Network for Human Rights, along with the International Human Rights Clinic at Boston University School of Law, the International Human Rights Clinic at Cornell Law School, the Centre for Human Rights at the University of Pretoria, and the Lowenstein Human Rights Project at Yale Law School, conducted a legal analysis and the 100-page damning report,“Genocide in Gaza: Analysis of International Law and its Application to Israel’s Military Actions since October 7, 2023.”
The Israeli military have killed more than 35,000 people — mostly women and children — and more than 78,000 people and the UN General Assembly voted by an overwhelming 134-9 votes to back Palestinian statehood on May 11.
The full page Zionist advertisement in The New Zealand Herald this week, 14 May 2024. Image: NZH screenshot APR
In the full page Zionist advertisement in The New Zealand Herald on Tuesday, senior pastor Nigel Woodley of the Flaxmere Christian Fellowship Church in Hastings claimed “the current painful war is another episode in Israel’s history for survival” with no acknowledgement of the massive human cost on Palestinians.
The open letter by Reverend Chris Sullivan in response — dated the same day but not published by The Herald — says:
An advertisement in the Herald supports the creation of the State of Israel.
For the same reasons we should also support the creation of a Palestinian state; don’t Palestinians also deserve their own nation state?
Just as we decry Hitler’s Holocaust, so too must we raise our voices against the killing of 35,000 people in Gaza (most of them innocent civilians), the destruction of 70 percent of the housing, and imminent famine.
It is disingenuous to focus solely on the Arab invasions of Israel, without looking at their cause — the killing and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians which accompanied the creation of the modern state of Israel.
It is never too late for both sides to turn away from violence and war and build a lasting peace, based on mutual respect and a just solution to the terrible injustices the Palestinian people have suffered.
Worried New Caledonian expats in Aotearoa admit they are “terrified” for friends and family amid ongoing violence and civil unrest in the French Pacific territory.
The death toll remained at four tonight, and hundreds have been injured after electoral changes sparked widespread rioting by pro-independence supporters in the capital of Nouméa.
French President Emmanuel Macron has declared a 12-day state of emergency and about 1200 police enforcements are due to arrive from France.
Many worried locals have been confined to their homes.
New Zealand-based New Caledonians have explained how the situation in their homeland has left them on edge.
Pascale Desrumaux and her family have been in Auckland for two years.
With parts of the country in turmoil, she said she was scared for her family and friends back home in Nouméa.
“I’m terrified and I’m very stressed,” Desrumaux said.
“[My family] are afraid for their lives.”
‘Locked in’
The precarious situation is illustrated by the fact her family cannot leave their homes and neighbouring stores have been ransacked then torched by protesters.
“They are locked in at the moment, so they can’t move — so they feel anxiety of course,” Desrumaux said.
“On top of that, shortly they will run out of food.
“The situation is complex.”
Cars on fire in Nouméa during the latest political unrest. Image: @ncla1ere
Desrumaux is checking in with family members every few hours for updates.
Amid the current climate, she said she had mixed emotions about being abroad.
“This shared feeling of being relieved to be here in New Zealand and grateful because my kids and husband are not in danger,” she said.
“At the same time I feel so bad for my friends and family over there.”
‘A beautiful place’
She stressed her home country remained “a beautiful place” and hoped the crisis could be resolved peacefully.
Fellow Auckland-based New Caledonian Anais Bride said she had been left distraught by what was unfolding.
In the past 48 hours, her parents have vacated their Nouméa home to stay with Bride’s sister as tensions escalated.
Based on her conversations with loved ones, she said that international news coverage had not fully conveyed the fluid crisis facing citizens on the ground.
“It took my mother a little while for her to accept the fact that it was time to leave, because she wanted to stay where she lives.
“My sisters’ just told her ‘at the end of the day, it’s just your house, it’s material’.
“It’s been hard for my parents.”
One supermarket standing
She said there was only one supermarket left standing in Nouméa, with many markets destroyed by fire.
Kevin, who did not want his surname to be published, is another New Caledonian living in New Zealand.
While his family has not seen much unrest first hand, explosions and smoke were constant where they were, he said.
He said it was hard to predict how the unrest could be straightened out.
“It’s hard to tell,” he said.
“The most tragic thing of course is the four deaths, and many businesses have been burned down so many people will lose their job.
“The main thing is how people rebuild connections, peace and of course the economy.”
‘Timely exit’ from Nouméa
Christchurch woman Viki Moore spent a week in New Caledonia before making a “timely exit” out of Nouméa on Monday as civil tension intensified.
Some of the strong law enforcement presence at the airport in Nouméa on Monday. Image: Viki Moore/RNZ
“There was a heavy police presence out at the airport with two [armoured vehicles] at the entrance and heavily armed military police roaming around.
“Once we got into the airport we were relieved to be there in this sort of peaceful oasis.
“We didn’t really have a sense of what was still to come.”
She admitted that she did not fully comprehend the seriousness of it until she had left the territory.
An armoured vehicle on the road amid unrest in New Caledonia, on Monday. Image: Viki Moore/RNZ
Warnings for travellers Flights through Nouméa are currently grounded.
Air New Zealand said it was monitoring the situation in New Caledonia, with its next flight NZ932 from Auckland to Nouméa still scheduled for Saturday morning.
Chief Operational Integrity and Safety Officer Captain David Morgan said this “could be subject to change”.
“The safety of our passengers, crew, and airport staff is our top priority and we will not operate flights unless their safety can be guaranteed,” he said.
“We will keep passengers updated on our services and advise customers currently in Nouméa to follow the advice of local authorities and the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.”
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
French President Emmanuel Macron has declared a state of emergency in New Caledonia after several days of civil unrest in the capital.
Four people are dead due to the unrest and violence in the capital, Nouméa.
France TV reports that a 22-year-old gendarme who had been seriously wounded has become the fourth death. The other three were reportedly Kanaks killed by vigilantes.
Macron posted on X, formerly Twitter, a message saying the nation was thinking of the gendarme’s family.
Hundreds of others have been injured with more casualties expected as French security forces struggle to restore law and order in Nouméa amid reports of clashes between rioters and “militia” groups being formed by city residents.
According to local media, the state of emergency was announced following a defence and national security council meeting in Paris between the Head of State and several government members, including the Prime Minister and ministers of the Armed Forces, the Interior, the Economy and Justice.
In a press conference last evening in Nouméa, France’s High Commissioner to New Caledonia, Louis Le Franc, told reporters he would call on the military forces if necessary and that reinforcements would be sent today.
Local leaders called for state of emergency The state of emergency declaration came after the deteriorating crisis on Wednesday prompted Southern Province President Sonia Backès to call on President Macron to declare an emergency to allow the army to back up the police.
“Houses and businesses are being burnt down and looted — organised gangs are terrorising the population and putting at risk the life of inhabitants,” Backes said.
French High Commissioner to New Caledonia Louis Le Franc . . . 12-day state of emergency declared. Image: RNZ
“Law enforcement agents are certainly doing a great job but are obviously overwhelmed by the magnitude of this insurrection . . . Night and day, hastily formed citizen militias find themselves confronted with rioters fuelled by hate and the desire for violence.
“In the next few hours, without a massive and urgent intervention from France, we will lose control of New Caledonia,” Sonia Backès wrote.
She added: “We are now in a state of civil war.”
Backès was later joined by elected MPs for New Caledonia’s constituency, MP Nicolas Metzdorf and Senator Georges Naturel, who also appealed to the French President to declare a state of emergency.
“Mr President, we are at a critical moment and you alone can save New Caledonia,” they wrote.
More than 1700 law enforcement officers deployed During a press conference on Wednesday evening, French High Commissioner Louis Le Franc said two persons had died from gunshot wounds and another two were seriously injured during a clash between rioters and a local “civil defence group”.
He said the gunshot came from one member of the civil defence group who “was trying to defend himself”.
Other reliable sources later confirmed to RNZ the death toll from the same clash was at least three people.
High Commissioner Le Franc said that in the face of an escalating situation, the total number of law enforcement personnel deployed on the ground, mainly in Nouméa, was now about 1000 gendarmes, seven hundred police, as well as members of SWAT intervention groups from gendarmerie (GIGN) and police (RAID).
Le Franc said that a dusk-to-dawn curfew had been extended for another 24 hours.
“People have to respect the curfew, not go to confrontations with weapons, not to burn businesses, shops, pharmacies, schools.”
Police reinforcements have arrived in New Caledonia where three days of violent unrest has hit the capital Nouméa. Image: FB/info Route NC et Coup de Gueule Route
Armed groups formed on both sides All commercial flights to and from the Nouméa-La Tontouta international airport remained cancelled for today, affecting an estimated 2500 passengers to and from Auckland, Sydney, Brisbane, Nadi, Papeete, Tokyo and Singapore.
The situation on the ground is being described by local leaders as “guerrilla warfare” bordering on a “civil war”, as more civilian clashes were reported yesterday on the outskirts of Nouméa, with opposing groups armed with weapons such as hunting rifles.
“We have now entered a dangerous spiral, a deadly spiral . . . There are armed groups on both sides and if they don’t heed calls for calms — there will be more deaths,” French High Commissioner Louis Le Franc warned.
“I sense dark hours coming in New Caledonia . . . The current situation is not meant to take this terrible twist, a form of civil war.”
Le Franc said if needed, he would call on “military” reinforcements.
Also yesterday, a group of armed rioters heading towards Nouméa’s industrial zone of Ducos, prompted an intervention from a RAID police squad.
As Nouméa residents woke up today the situation in Noumea remained volatile as, over the past 24 hours, pro-France citizens have started to set up “civil defence groups”, barricades and roadblocks to protect themselves.
Some of them have started to call themselves “militia” groups.
Political leaders call for calm
On the political front, there have been more calls for calm and appeasement from all quarters.
After New Caledonian territorial President Louis Mapou appealed on Tuesday for a “return to reason”, the umbrella body for pro-independence political parties, the FLNKS, yesterday also issued a release appealing for “calm and appeasement” and the lifting of blockades.
While “regretting” and “deploring” the latest developments, the pro-independence umbrella group recalled it had called for the French government’s proposed amendment on New Caledonia’s electoral changes to be withdrawn to “preserve the conditions to reach a comprehensive political agreement between all parties and the French State”.
“However, this situation cannot justify putting at risk peace and all that has been implemented towards a lasting ‘living together’ and exit the colonisation system,” the FLNKS statement said.
The FLNKS also noted that for the order to be validated, the controversial amendment still needed to be put to the vote of the French Congress (combined meeting of the Assembly and the Senate) and that French President Macron had indicated he would not convene the gathering of both Houses of the French Parliament immediately “to give a chance for dialogue and consensus”.
“This is an opportunity FLNKS wishes to seize so that everyone’s claims, including those engaged in demonstrations, can be heard and taken into account,” the statement said.
The President of the Loyalty Islands province, Jacques Lalié (pro-independence) on Wednesday called for “appeasement” and for “our youths to respect the values symbolised by our flag and maintain dignity in their engagement without succumbing to provocations”.
“Absolute priority must be given to dialogue and the search for intelligence to reach a consensus,” he said.
Paris vote which sparked unrest
Overnight in Paris, the French National Assembly voted 351 in favour (mostly right-wing parties) and 153 against (mostly left-wing parties) the proposed constitutional amendments that sparked the ill-fated protests in Noumea on Monday.
French National Assembly in session . . . controversial draft New Caledonia constitutional electoral change adopted by a 351-153 vote. Image: Assemblée Nationale
This followed hours of heated debate about the relevance of such a text, which New Caledonia’s pro-independence parties strongly oppose because, they say, it poses a serious risk and could shrink their political representation in local institutions (New Caledonia has three provincial assemblies as well as the local parliament, called its Congress).
New Caledonia’s pro-independence parties had been calling for the government to withdraw the text and instead, to send a high-level “dialogue mission” to the French Pacific archipelago.
The text, which is designed to open the restricted list of voters to those who have been residing in New Caledonia for an uninterrupted 10 years, has not completed its legislative path.
After its endorsement by the Senate (on 2 April 2024, with amendments) and the National Assembly (15 May 2024), it still needs to be put to the vote of the French Congress (a joint sitting of France’s both Houses of Parliament, the National Assembly and the Senate) and obtain a required majority of 60 percent.
The result of Tuesday’s controversial New Caledonia vote in the French National Assembly . . . 351 votes for the wider electoral roll with 153 against. Image: Assemblée Nationale
The bigger picture The proposed constitutional amendments were tabled by the French Minister for Home Affairs and Overseas, Gérald Darmanin.
Darmanin has defended his bill by saying the original restrictions to New Caledonia’s electoral roll put in place under temporary measures prescribed by the 1998 Nouméa Accord needed to be readjusted to restore “a minimum of democracy” in line with universal suffrage and France’s Constitution.
The previous restrictions had been a pathway to decolonisation for New Caledonia inscribed in the French Constitution, which only allowed people who had been living in New Caledonia before 1998 to vote in local elections.
Those principles were at the centre of the heated discussions during the two days of debate in the National Assembly, where strong words were often exchanged between both sides.
More than 25 years after its implementation, the Accord– a kind of de facto embryonic Constitution for New Caledonia — is now deemed by France to have reached its expiry date after three self-determination referendums were held in 2018, 2020 and 2021, all resulting in a rejection of independence, although the last vote was highly controversial.
The third and final referendum — although conducted legally — was boycotted by a majority of the pro-independence Kanak political groups and their supporters resulting in an overwhelming “no” vote to Independence from France, a stark contrast to the earlier referendum results.
Results of New Caledonia referenda
2018: 56.67 percent voted against independence and 43.33 percent in favour.
2020: 53.26 percent voted against independence and 46.74 percent in favour.
2021: 96.5 percent voted against independence and 3.5 percent in favour. (However, However, the third and final vote in 2021 — during the height of the covid pandemic — under the Nouméa Accord was boycotted by the pro-indigenous Kanak population. In that vote, 96 percent of the people voted against independence — with a 44 percent turnout.)
Since the third referendum was held, numerous attempts have been made to convene all local political parties around the table to come up with a successor pact to the Nouméa Accord.
This would have to be the result of inclusive and bipartisan talks, but those meetings have not yet taken place, mainly because of differences between — and within — both pro-independence and pro-France parties.
Darmanin’s attempts to bring these talks to reality have so far failed, even though he has travelled to New Caledonia seven times over the past two years.
From the pro-independence parties’ point of view, Darmanin is now regarded as not the right person anymore and has been blamed by critics for the talks stalling.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
New Zealand has upgraded its SafeTravel alert for parts of New Caledonia.
All commercial flights to and from the Nouméa-La Tontouta international airport have been cancelled and many holiday makers have been stuck in Nouméa.
Aucklander Mike Lightfoot is one of those people. He arrived in Nouméa in Monday and described the scenes in the city for RNZ Morning Report.
Lightfoot said that as he and his wife started to make their way to their hotel they saw protesters, some with machetes, but they were not too worried.
‘Intersections on fire’
“It was very peaceful, we thought at the time, but as we got closer into town we could certainly see there was unrest.
“There was intersections on fire . . . as we came into the town itself there were the Gendarmerie in full gear . . . we thought this was getting serious.”
Burning cars at a Nouméa protest barricade today. Image: NC 1ère TV screenshot APR
Lightfoot said his wife needed a doctor for a chest condition and as they were in the doctor’s surgery “we heard explosions and gunshots very close to us”.
“They were rioting right through town, the town was on fire. Fortunately our taxi driver pulled down a side street, stopped for a second, got himself together. There were people running around our car and carrying on and he took off.
“We climbed up in through the suburbs and as we came down to try and get back to our hotel we came to a roundabout and they had the roundabout completely blocked off, there would have been, we estimate, around 150 of them there protesting.
“The whole roundabout was on fire, they had big blocks in the middle of the road.
“As we edged through, the smoke was so black we couldn’t really see the road. One of them whacked the car as we went through but yeah, it was pretty unsettling . . . ”
‘Be prepared to evacuate’
His hotel, Chateau Royal have asked people staying there not to step foot outside of the complex and “they’ve asked us to be prepared, that we may need to evacuate”.
About 51 New Zealanders were staying at the hotel, he said.
“We’re sort of feeling that people in New Zealand are really not understanding how serious this is and it’s quite unsettling for us all here, in fact we want out of here very quickly to be fair.”
Lightfoot said the airlines were keeping them informed.
“As soon as we are able to get to the airport they’ve [one airline] said that we are definitely on one of those planes. Air New Zealand at this point are planning to have a flight here on Saturday, if that goes ahead they also have us listed on that flight to get us out.”
Supplies in the issue were a problem and staff were living on site for their own safety, he said.
RNZ Pacific’s Koroi Hawkins said some Kanak leaders have told him they seem to have lost control of the youth.
Other residents in the city of Nouméa, some of them pro-French, have began to arm themselves as vigilantes.
Unrest a concern – Sepuloni Labour Party’s deputy leader Carmel Sepuloni told RNZ’s First Up the growing unrest in New Caledonia was a concern.
Sepuloni said it was a worry, but she was not sure whether New Zealand would have any involvement in trying to bring the situation in the French territory under control.
At last year’s Pacific Leaders Forum, French Polynesian representatives were already expressing concern about how some policies from the French government might affect its inidgenous population, she said.
Glimmer of hope, says former envoy A former Australian consul-general for New Caledonia Denise Fisher said measures in the French territory could hopefully fix the immediate security problem, but this was not the core issue.
“The key issue that set off the situation was about representation, who can vote in local elections.
“And it seems such an esoteric issue but it’s a critical issue, especially for the independence supporters.”
Fisher said 40 years ago, when peace agreements were reached after four years of violence, the key issue for the Kanak independence leaders was to constrain voting to only those with long term residence in New Caledonia.
“So it’s a core issue with the breaking down and the expiry of these agreements. We’re now in a political kind of a vacuum and talks about this haven’t got very far.”
She said there was a glimmer of hope on Wednesday.
“Some independence parties and some loyalist parties issued a joint communiqué calling for peace
“They’ve been having, as they have at the end of last year, informal talks, that they think they can talk and come to some sort of agreement to put to the French in the next couple of weeks.”
Denise Fisher, a visiting fellow at Australian National University, gives her assessment on New Caledonia in detail in this Asia Pacific Report article.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
France has declared a state of emergency on the Pacific territory of New Caledonia — New Zealand’s closest neighbour — after four people, including a police officer, have been killed in pro-independence riots over voting changes that further marginalise indigenous Kanaks, news agencies report.
The move came as the French government confirmed an additional 500 members of the French national police and gendarmerie were being sent to the territory to reinforce the 1800 already there and to try and quell the violence.
The state of emergency will last 12 days and give authorities additional powers to ban gatherings and forbid people from moving around the French-ruled territory.
The last time France imposed such measures on one of its overseas territories was in 1985 — also in New Caledonia in the middle of a similar upheaval known as “Les événements“, the Interior Ministry said.
Rioters torched vehicles and businesses and looted stores and this video below (in French) from the local Caledonia TV shows the destruction in the wake of the protests.
Deaths amid the third day of rioting. Video: Caledonia TV
As Israel drives the Palestinians deeper into another Nakba in Gaza with its assault on Rafah, the Palestine Youth Aotearoa (PYA) and solidarity supporters in Aotearoa New Zealand tonight commemorated the original Nakba — “the Catastrophe” — of 1948.
The 1948 Nakba . . . more than 750,000 Palestinians were forced to leave their homeland and become exiles in neighbouring states. Many dream of their UN-recognised right to return. Image: Wikipedia
This was when Israeli militias slaughtered more than 15,000 people, perpetrated more than 70 massacres and occupied more than three quarters of Palestine, with 750,000 of the Palestinian population forced into becoming refugees from their own land.
The Nakba was a massive campaign of ethnic cleansing followed by the destruction of hundreds of villages, to prevent the return of the refugees — similar to what is being wrought now in Gaza.
The Nakba lies at the heart of 76 years of injustice for the Palestinians — and for the latest injustice, the seven-month long war on Gaza.
Participants told through their stories, poetry and songs by candlelight, they would not forget 1948 — “and we will not forget the genocide under way in Gaza.”
Photographs: David Robie
Nakba Day vigil in Tāmaki Makaurau in Aotearoa 2024
1 of 12
Nakba 1: Recalling the original Nakba in Palestine in 1948. Image: David Robie/Asia Pacific Report
Nakba 2: Photos of the original 1948 Nakba and the atrocities that followed. Image: David Robie/Asia Pacific Report
Nakba 3: A photographic timeline from 1948 until 2024. Image: David Robie/Asia Pacific Report
Nakba 4: Blindfolded Palestinian captive. Image: David Robie/Asia Pacific Report
Nakba 5: “Generation after generation until total liberation.” Image: David Robie/Asia Pacific Report
Nakba 6: Palestinian Kiwi children with miniature watermelons. Image: David Robie/Asia Pacific Report
Nakba 7: Palestinian keys – symbolic of the Right To Return. Image: David Robie/Asia Pacific Report
Nakba 10: A montage of Israeli settler colonial cruelty. Image: David Robie/Asia Pacific Report
Nakba 11: Palestinian children sing about their homeland during the Nakba rally in Auckland’s Aotea Square on Sunday, 12 May 2024. Image: David Robie/Asia Pacific Report
Nakba 12: A giant “key of return” during the Queen Street Nakba march on Sunday, 12 May 2024. Image: David Robie/Asia Pacific Report
This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.
Sorry Palestinian women and children. It seems Australia’s leading women’s media company has more pressing issues to cover than the seemingly endless human rights atrocities committed against you.
It’s been seven months of almost complete silence from Mamamia and their most popular writers and podcast hosts.
I’ve respected and appreciated their work in the past, which is why it’s truly disheartening to see.
Mamamia Out Loud has found time and scope to speak about me personally in two recent episodes (both sadly devoid of context and riddled with inaccuracies) yet can’t seem to find the words to report on or reflect on the man made famine in Gaza.
The murdered and orphaned children. The women having c-sections with no anaesthesia. The haunting screams from mothers hugging their lifeless babies bodies for the last time.
Faux feminism? Or is it all still “too complex”? I can’t answer that, except to say it’s dispiriting and disappointing to witness given Mamamia’s tagline.
What we’re talking about
Because Gaza is what millions of Australian women “are actually talking about”. It’s what’s waking countless Australian women up at night. It’s what’s making Australian women tremble in tears watching children’s body parts dug out from beneath the rubble.
Mamamia’s audience is being let down, they deserve better.
As for the innocent women and girls of Palestine — tragically “let down” doesn’t even begin to describe it. They deserve so much more.
I’m utterly heartbroken witnessing such disregard for their lives.
So I fixed the Mamamia headline in the above photo.
Antoinette Lattouf is an Australian-Lebanese journalist, host, author and diversity advocate. She has worked with a range of mainstream media, and as a social commentator for various online and broadcast publications. This commentary was first published on her Facebook page.
France’s Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said hundreds of people had been injured in rioting, Reuters reported.
French High Commissioner Louis Le Franc said: “I sense dark hours have arrived in New Caledonia.”
“So what we must remember from what I am going to tell you is a call for calm — stop, stop.
“Stop what has been started.”
Security forces bolstered
This follows France sending in more than 600 reinforcements to back up local police.
More than 130 people have been arrested and fears are turning to how these people will be detained, with the prison population already at capacity.
Local journalist Coralie Cochin told RNZ another curfew had been announced for this evening starting at 6pm local time.
A New Zealander holidaying in New Caledonia earlier told RNZ residents in the territory believed the situation could get worse.
Mike Lightfoot and his family are stuck in New Caledonia until at least Friday after the government imposed curfews and a drinking ban to try to quell protests.
The violence was provoked by a proposal by France which would allow French residents who have lived in New Caledonia for 10 years, to vote in provincial elections — a move local pro-independence leaders fear will dilute the vote of the indigenous Kanak population.
Lightfoot said the situation seemed peaceful as his family returned from a beach north of Nouméa, but the number of protests escalated as they entered the capital.
‘Frightening — gunshots, explosions’
Intersections were blocked and some were on fire. There were riot police throughout the city.
He and his wife had to leave the hotel at night to find a doctor after she developed a chest infection.
“It was a frightening experience. We could hear gunshots. We heard explosions.”
They had to drive through a roundabout on fire, blocked by 150 protesters.
Lightfoot said locals and staff in the hotel had told them they believed protests could escalate with the presence of more riot police and latest moves from France.
Macron’s plan has backfired. But there can be no sustainable solution without cooperation of all parties, writes a former Australian diplomat in New Caledonia.
ANALYSIS:By Denise Fisher
Monday night saw demonstrations by independence supporters in New Caledonia erupt into serious violence for the first time since the 1980s civil disturbances.
On Monday, May 13, in Noumea, as France’s National Assembly debated the constitutional change in Paris, their local counterparts in the New Caledonian Congress were debating a resolution calling for withdrawal of the legislation.
The debate was bitter, after months of deepening division between independence and loyalist parties and focusing as it did on one of the most sensitive issues to each side, that of voter eligibility. The resolution was passed, as independence parties secured the support of a small minority party to outnumber the loyalists.
Macron, in an eleventh hour bid to prompt all parties to participate in new discussions about the future, proposed on May 13 to hold talks in Paris, but only after the Assembly vote of May 14 (albeit before the next step in the constitutional amendment process, a meeting of both houses).
Independence party leaders had called on their supporters to demonstrate against the constitutional reform, to coincide with the National Assembly’s consideration of the issue. The evening of May 13 was marked by violence on a scale not seen in decades.
Burning of buildings, roadblocks
It included the burning of buildings and businesses, roadblocks preventing movement in and out of the capital, and the closure of airports and ports in some of the islands. Police were targeted with gunfire and stoning, resulting in 35 injured police.
As of yesterday, Tuesday May 14, people were being asked to stay at home, with a curfew imposed. France, which already had 700 police on the job in New Caledonia, has sent reinforcements to maintain order.
A curfew was imposed. France, which already had 700 police on the job in New Caledonia, has sent reinforcements to maintain order. Image: Al Jazeera screenshot APR
The violence immediately brought to the minds of leaders the bloodshed of the 1980s, termed “les événements”.
The French High Commissioner, or governor, suggested things were moving “towards an abyss” and cancelled some incoming flights to prevent complications from tourists being unable to access Noumea, while noting that the airport and main wharf remain open. He urged independence leaders to use their influence on the young to stop the violence.
The Mayor of Noumea, Sonia Lagarde, described the situation as “extremely well organised guerrilla warfare” involving “well-trained young people” and suggested “a sort of civil war” was approaching.
On the face of it, to an outsider, Macron’s plan to broaden voter eligibility to those with 10 years’ residence prior to any local election, unless discussions about the future begin, would seem reasonable.
He sees the three independence votes held from 2018–21 as legal, notwithstanding the largely indigenous boycott of the third. (Each referendum saw a vote to stay with France, although support was narrow, declining from 56.7% to 53.3% in the first two votes, but ballooning to 96.5% in the third vote boycotted by independence supporters.)
‘Radical’ for white Caledonians, ‘unconscionable’ for Kanaks
For New Caledonians, Macron’s positioning is radical. Loyalists see it as a vindication of their position.
But for independence parties, France’s stance has been unconscionable. Independence leaders reject the result of the boycotted referendum and want another self-determination vote soon.
But they have all strongly opposed Macron’s imposing constitutional change to widen voter eligibility unilaterally from Paris. They were affronted by his appointment of a prominent loyalist MP as the rapporteur responsible for shepherding the issue through the Assembly.
They have instead been calling for a special mission led by an impartial figure to bring about dialogue.
Protests included the burning of buildings and businesses, roadblocks preventing movement in and out of the capital, and the closure of airports and ports in some of the islands. Image: NC La Première TV
More importantly, they see the highly sensitive voter eligibility issue as a central negotiating chip in discussions about the future. Confining voter eligibility only to those with longstanding residence on a fixed basis — not by a number of years prior to any local election as Macron is proposing — was fundamental to securing independence party acceptance of peace agreements over 30 years, after France had operated a policy of bringing in French nationals from elsewhere to outweigh local independence supporters who are primarily indigenous.
Differences have deepened
With the inconclusive end of these agreements, differences have only deepened.
Loyalist leaders have accused independence leaders of planning the violence. Whether it was planned or whether demonstrations degenerated, either way it is clear that emotions are running high among independence supporters, who feel their position is not being respected.
No sustainable solution for the governance of New Caledonia is possible without the cooperation of all parties.
It seems that, regardless of Macron’s evident intention of spurring parties to come to the discussion table, his plan has backfired. Discussions are unlikely to resume soon.
Denise Fisher is a visiting fellow at Australian National University’s Centre for European Studies. She was an Australian diplomat for 30 years, serving in Australian diplomatic missions as a political and economic policy analyst in many Australian missions in Asia, Europe and Africa, including as Australian Consul-General in Nouméa, New Caledonia (2001-2004). She is the author of France in the South Pacific: Power and Politics (2013). This article was first published by the Lowy Institute’s The Interpreter and is republished by Asia Pacific Report with permission.
A group belonging to New Caledonia’s pro-independence movement, UNI (Union Nationale pour l’Indépendance), has released a communiqué saying they were “moved by and deplored the exactions and violence taking place“.
UNI member of New Caledonia’s Northern provincial assembly Patricia Goa said the violent unrest “affects the whole of our population”.
She said it was “necessary to preserve all that we have built together for over 30 years” and that the priority was “to preserve peace, social cohesion”.
New Caledonia’s Northern provincial assembly Patricia Goa . . . call to “preserve all that we have built together for over 30 years.” Image: Walter Zweifel/RNZ
New Caledonia’s territorial President, pro-independence leader Louis Mapou, in a news release from his “collegial” government, appealed for “calm, peace, stability and reason”.
He said they “must remain our goals” in the face of “those events that can only show the persistence of profound fractures and misunderstandings”.
New Caledonia President Louis Mapou . . . an appeal to “bring back reason and calm”. Photo: RNZ Walter Zweifel
He called on all components of New Caledonia’s society to “use every way and means to bring back reason and calm”.
“Every explanation for these frustrations — anger cannot justify harming or destroying public property, production tools, all of which this country has taken decades to build,” he said, strongly condemning such actions.
Referring to current debates in the Paris National Assembly on changing the French Constitution — to allow more voters at New Caledonia’s local provincial elections — Mapou also appealed to French President Emmanuel Macron, to “bear in mind” that at all times, the priority must remain for a comprehensive agreement to be struck between all political leaders of New Caledonia, to pave the way for the archipelago’s long-term political future.
This accord has not taken place and Macron at the weekend invited all of New Caledonia’s leaders to restart discussions in Paris.
Protesters take part in a demonstration led by the Union of Kanak Workers and the Exploited (USTKE) and organisations of the Kanaky Solidarity Collective in support of Kanak people, with flags of the Socialist Kanak National Liberation Front (FLNKS) in Paris next to a statue of Vauban, a celebrated 18th century French military engineer who became a Marshal of France. Image: RNZ
Back in Paris, debates resumed last night in National Assembly, but the vote on a French government-proposed Constitutional change to modify the conditions of eligibility ended with a decisive yes 351-153 in spite of the strong opposition.
Left-wing MPs are supporting New Caledonia’s pro-independence movement in their struggle against a text they believe would seriously affect their political representation.
Meanwhile, New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters, is this week heading a political delegation in several Pacific island countries and territories, including Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, and Tuvalu.
However, the New Caledonian leg of the tour was officially cancelled and will be rescheduled to another date.
As part of the official travel programme, the delegation was to “meet with government, political and cultural leaders, visit New Zealand-supported development initiatives and participate in community activities”.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
Burnt van and tyres at one roadblock near Nouméa’ Magenta industrial zone. Image: RNZ/La 1ère TV
By Stephen Wright and Stefan Armbruster of BenarNews
French authorities have imposed a curfew on New Caledonia’s capital Nouméa and banned public gatherings after supporters of the Pacific territory’s independence movement blocked roads, set fire to buildings and clashed with security forces.
Tensions in New Caledonia have been inflamed by French government’s plans to give the vote to tens of thousands of French immigrants to the Melanesian island chain.
The enfranchisement would create a significant obstacle to the self-determination aspirations of the indigenous Kanak people.
“Very intense public order disturbances took place last night in Noumea and in neighboring towns, and are still ongoing at this time,” French High Commissioner to New Caledonia Louis Le Franc said in a statement today.
About 36 people were arrested and numerous police were injured, the statement said.
French control of New Caledonia and its surrounding islands gives the European nation a security and diplomatic role in the Pacific at a time when the US, Australia and other Western countries are pushing back against China’s inroads in the region.
Kanaks make up about 40 percent of New Caledonia’s 270,000 people but are marginalised in their own land — they have lower incomes and poorer health than Europeans who make up a third of the population and predominate positions of power in the territory.
Buildings, cars set ablaze
Video and photos posted online showed buildings set ablaze, burned out vehicles at luxury car dealerships and security forces using tear gas to confront groups of protestors waving Kanaky flags and throwing petrol bombs at city intersections in the worst rioting in decades.
Kanak protesters in Nouméa demanding independence and a halt to France’s proposed constitutional changes that change voting rights. Image: @CMannevy
A dusk-to-dawn curfew was imposed today and could be renewed as long as necessary, the high commissioner’s statement said.
Public gatherings in greater Noumea are banned and the sale of alcohol and carrying or transport of weapons is prohibited throughout New Caledonia.
The violence erupted as the National Assembly, the lower house of France’s Parliament, debated a constitutional amendment to “unfreeze” the electoral roll, which would enfranchise relative newcomers to New Caledonia.
It is scheduled to vote on the measure this afternoon in Paris. The French Senate approved the amendment in April.
Local Congress opposes amendment
New Caledonia’s territorial Congress, where pro-independence groups have a majority, on Monday passed a resolution that called for France to withdraw the amendment.
It said political consensus has “historically served as a bulwark against intercommunity tensions and violence” in New Caledonia.
“Any unilateral decision taken without prior consultation of New Caledonian political leaders could compromise the stability of New Caledonia,” the resolution said.
French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin told his country’s legislature that about 42,000 people — about one in five possible voters in New Caledonia — are denied the right to vote under the 1998 Noumea Accord between France and the independence movement that froze the electoral roll.
“Democracy means voting,” he said.
New Caledonia’s pro-independence government — the first in its history — could lose power in elections due in December if the electoral roll is enlarged.
New Caledonia voted by small majorities to remain part of France in referendums held in 2018 and 2020 under a UN-mandated decolonisation process. Three ballots were organised as part of the Noumea Accord to increase Kanaks’ political power following deadly violence in the 1980s.
Referendum legitimacy rejected
A contentious final referendum in 2022 was overwhelmingly in favour of continuing with the status quo. However, supporters of independence have rejected its legitimacy due to very low turnout — it was boycotted by the independence movement — and because it was held during a serious phase of the covid-19 pandemic, which restricted campaigning.
Representatives of the FLNKS (Front de Libération Nationale Kanak et Socialist) independence movement did not respond to interview requests.
“When there’s no hope in front of us, we will fight, we will struggle. We’ll make sure you understand what we are talking about,” Patricia Goa, a New Caledonian politician said in an interview last month with Australian public broadcaster ABC.
“Things can go wrong and our past shows that,” she said.
Confrontations between protesters and security forces are continuing in Noumea.
Darmanin has ordered reinforcements be sent to New Caledonia, including hundreds of police, urban violence special forces and elite tactical units.
New Caledonians lined up in long queues outside shopping centres to buy supplies in the capital Nouméa today amid political unrest in the French territory
A Nouméa resident, who wished to remain anonymous, told RNZ Pacific people had started “panic buying” in scenes reminiscent of the covid-19 pandemic.
“A lot of fire, violence . . . but it’s better. I stay safe at home. There are a lot of police and army. I want the government to put the action for the peace [sic].”
The unrest comes amid proposed constitutional changes, which could strengthen voting rights for anti-independence supporters in New Caledonia. Image: Screenshot/NC la 1ère/RNZ
Public services and schools in the affected areas announced they were sending staff and students home on Monday, and that they would remain closed for the next few days.
Meanwhile, New Zealand Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters, who is on a five-country Pacific mission this week, has cancelled his visit to New Caledonia due to the unrest.
Peters and a delegation of other ministers were due to visit the capital Nouméa later this week.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
Demonstrations, marches and confrontations with security forces spread throughout the French Pacific territory yesterday, with flash points in the suburbs of the capital Nouméa, especially the villages of Saint Louis and nearby Mont-Dore.
By last evening, several violent confrontations were still taking place between pro-independence militants and police.
At Nouméa’s central prison, Camp Est, three penitentiary staff were briefly taken hostage by inmates, as part of a botched mutiny within the jail.
The hostages were later released.
Public services and schools in the affected areas announced they were sending staff and students home yesterday, and that they would remain closed for the next few days.
In Lifou, at least 1000 people were estimated to have taken part in po-independence demonstrations. Image: NC la 1ère/RNZ
CCAT said in a release this was “stage two and a half” (out of three stages) of its mobilisation.
It involved marches in New Caledonia’s Loyalty Islands group, including Lifou, where at least 1000 people were estimated to have taken part in demonstrations.
French High commissioner’s warning French High Commissioner Louis Le Franc announced through the public broadcaster La Première that he had called for reinforcements from Paris to maintain law and order.
This included police, gendarmes and members of the SWAT group GIGN (Gendarmerie National Intervention Group) and RAID.
Law enforcement officers were injured by stones and shots were fired from within Saint Louis on Monday, he said.
A blockade at the entrance of the village of Saint Louis. Image: NC la 1ère/RNZ
He said some of the weapons used by “youth” were high calibre hunting guns.
Le Franc also warned if, in future, law enforcement officers were targeted again, they would consider themselves in a situation of “legitimate defence” and would retaliate.
“So I’m warning these young people . . . They should stop using weapons against gendarmes,” he said.
“I don’t want to see dead people in New Caledonia, but everyone should take their responsibility.
“I have also asked the custom chiefs [of Saint Louis] to do their job. They have an influence over these young people; they should restore calm.”
He told journalists most delinquents seemed to be under the influence of alcohol.
Le Franc also announced for the next 48 hours he had placed a ban on port and transport of weapons and ammunition, as well as another ban on the sale of liquor.
“Thirty-five gendarmes have been injured [on Monday] by stones and gunshots of large calibre, semi-automatic hunting guns. These are about 200 aggressive youths,” he told the public media.
While appealing for calm and respect for public order, he also strongly condemned the blockades and said the police and gendarmes’ first mission was to restore freedom of movement at blockades.
About 15 people were arrested yesterday, he said.
French President Emmanuel Macron delivering a speech in Nouméa on 26 July 2023 Image: RNZ
Macron to invite leaders for talks In an apparent wish to give more time for a local, inclusive agreement to take place, French President Emmanuel Macron’s entourage told French media at the weekend he would not convene the French Congress (a special gathering of both Houses of Parliament) for “several weeks”.
The French President’s office was also ready to call on all of New Caledonia’s political parties (both pro-France and pro-independence) for a roundtable in Paris by the end of May, in order to find an agreement on New Caledonia’s long-term political future.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
A New Zealand pro-Palestinian protester who climbed onto the roof of the Christchurch City Council building has been handcuffed and taken away in a police car.
About 20 protesters gathered near the Christchurch Art Gallery today.
Officers were called to the scene near Worcester Boulevard about 11.20am, and police and firefighters worked to get the person down from the roof.
The UN General Assembly has voted overwhelmingly to grant Palestine new rights and privileges, calling on the Security Council to reconsider its bid for full UN membership, reports TrimFeed.
The resolution on Friday was opposed by the US, Israel, and seven other countries — four of them island nations from the Pacific — citing concerns over direct negotiations and a two-state solution.
Papua New Guinea, Federated States of Micronesia and Palau were among the countries voting against Palestine.
Fiji abstains from UN vote on Palestinian membership bid. (Note: Australia voted yes, it did not abstain). Image: TrimFeed
The UN General Assembly called on the Security Council to reconsider Palestine’s request to become the 194th member of the United Nations.
The overwhelming vote in favour by 143-9, with 25 abstentions, reflects wide global support for full membership of Palestine in the world body.
The outcome of this vote has significant implications for the Israel-Palestine conflict, as it may influence the trajectory of future negotiations and the prospects for a two-state solution.
Furthermore, the level of international support for Palestinian statehood may impact on the balance of power in the region and beyond.
Fiji, Vanuatu, and Marshall Islands were among the countries that abstained from the vote, alongside the United States, Israel, Argentina, Czechia, Hungary, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, and Papua New Guinea voting against.
US will veto statehood
The US has made clear that it would block Palestinian membership and statehood until direct negotiations with Israel resolve key issues and lead to a two-state solution.
Many countries have expressed outrage at the situation and fears of a major Israeli ground offensive in Rafah.
Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian UN Ambassador, delivered an emotional speech, saying, “No words can capture what such loss and trauma signifies for Palestinians, their families, communities, and for our nation as a whole.”
Israel’s UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan vehemently opposed the resolution, accusing UN member nations of not mentioning Hamas’ October 7 attack that killed 1139 people and he shredded a copy of the UN charter in protest.
US Deputy Ambassador Robert Wood said: “For the US to support Palestinian statehood, direct negotiations must guarantee Israel’s security and future as a democratic Jewish state, and that Palestinians can live in peace in a state of their own.”
While the resolution grants Palestine some new rights and privileges, it reaffirms that it remains a non-member observer state without full UN membership and voting rights in the General Assembly.
Humanitarian ceasefire vote
Palestine became a UN non-member observer state in 2012. The United States vetoed a widely-backed council resolution on April 18 that would have paved the way for full United Nations membership for Palestine.
The General Assembly’s vote calling for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza on October 27 and the ongoing violence underscore the urgent need for a resolution to the long-standing crisis.
As the international community remains divided on the issue of Palestinian statehood, the path to lasting peace remains uncertain.
Republished from TrimFeed.
This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.
A National Union of Workers (NUW) official is hopeful Fiji Water employees who have been on strike for almost a week will return to work shortly.
Last Tuesday, a group of workers for Fiji Water went on strike over pay disputes at the multi-million dollar US-owned company’s water bottling plant in Yaqara and the Naikabula depot in Lautoka.
NUW’s industrial relations officer Mererai Vatege said the parties were currently working on a resolution.
“There have been some developments, the parties are currently talking,” Vatege said.
“We’re very hopeful and positive that this will be resolved soon.”
Vatege said the NUW met with Ministry of Labour officials on Thursday and are now awaiting a response from Fiji Water.
However, she was unable to give a date when she expected the matters to be resolved by.
Talks broke down last month
The employees have continued their strike, holding signs with messages calling for pay increases and working conditions.
Talks broke down between Fiji Water and workers on April 8.
The workers claim the company has failed pay owed overtime and have not made income adjustments to inflation, along with other pay related issues.
Fiji Water employees strike. Viudeo: RNZ Pacific Waves
RNZ Pacific have requested comment from Fiji Water but have not had a response.
However, in a statement last Wednesday, a company spokesperson told Fijian media it was regrettable workers had engaged in a strike.
“The decision to strike is also unlawful because these issues have been submitted to the Ministry of Employment, which has not yet decided on the dispute,” the spokesperson said.
“Fiji Water takes great pride in being one of the best employers in Fiji and operating one of the most advanced and safest plants in the world.”
Some of ‘highest benefits’
The spokesperson said the company provided some of the highest and best benefits in Fiji, including a 13.5 percent wage increase in 2022.
They said recent offers to the union equal an additional 17 percent pay increase for hourly-paid workers and a new roster pattern that would give workers 17 more days off each year.
“Instead, the union has elected to engage in a strike that harms workers who will not receive wages while on strike,” the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson said the company would remain committed to resolving the contested issues with the union.
Vatege said employees wanted to return to work but were united in strike action.
She said they would only return once an agreement was signed between the union and the employer.
Fiji Water’s signpost to its Yaqara valley production base in Fiji. Image: RNZ/Sally Round
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
Nouméa et le grand Nouméa se réveillent après une nuit de saccages et d’affrontements. Suivez la situation en direct 
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